Where I Stand on Vaping in Schools

By Curtis Campogni, Candidate for Pinellas County School Board (District 3 – At-Large)

Everyone knows vaping exists in schools.

What surprised me was not that it exists, but how often students and parents started bringing it up once I began asking more direct questions.

At first, this honestly was not one of the top issues people were discussing with me during the campaign.

But during a recent Listen & Learn event at a local library, both a middle school and high school student independently brought up concerns about vaping in schools.

That caught my attention.

So afterward, I started asking more students and parents at local high schools about it, and I kept hearing the same thing over and over again.

At some point, I started wondering:

Have we slowly started normalizing vaping as just another part of student life?

Because when I think back to my own high school experience, yes, there were occasional situations involving cigarettes, and some students would leave campus, smoke weed, and come back.

But I do not remember there being a broader culture of tolerating it inside the school environment itself.

That feels different.

And pretending it is not becoming a larger issue is not helping students, parents, teachers, or staff.

The Real Problem Is Bigger Than Vaping

To be clear, the conversations around addiction, nicotine, and student health matter. Schools should absolutely take those issues seriously.

But the part that concerns me most is the cultural impact vaping is having inside schools.

Because at this point, this is no longer just about individual choices.

It is affecting the environment students and staff experience every single day.

Let me paint a picture.

You are a student who simply needs to use the restroom during the school day.

But before you even walk in, you already know there is a good chance some of the stalls are being used for vaping.

Now you are put in a position where you have to decide:

• Do you ignore it?

• Report it?

• Wait?

• Leave and try to find another restroom?

And in that moment, you are thinking about everything except learning.

There is not a parent, teacher, staff member, or student who genuinely believes that is the preferred environment for schools.

And that is why this issue matters.

Because school culture matters.

Students notice when expectations feel inconsistent.

Parents notice when schools feel disorderly or poorly supervised.

Teachers notice when they are expected to manage growing behavioral issues without enough support.

And when enough people start feeling frustrated, unsafe, or ignored, trust in the learning environment slowly begins to erode.

The Path Forward Should Start This Summer

If we are serious about addressing vaping in schools, then the work cannot wait until the middle of next school year.

The first step is making this a districtwide conversation.

Not to shame students.

Not to blame parents.

Not to attack teachers or administrators.

But to make it much harder for people to pretend this is not affecting school culture, student behavior, bathrooms, supervision, and the overall learning environment.

That work should begin over the summer.

Before students return, the district should consider a clear prevention and response plan that includes:

• Parent explainer videos emailed before school starts

• Summer community Listen & Learns focused on student behavior and school culture

• Student-informed messaging about how vaping impacts more than just the student doing it

• A clear student pledge or acknowledgment before the school year begins

• Signage in school bathrooms

• Age-appropriate vaping education

• Stronger communication about expectations and consequences

• Expanded awareness of existing supports like the district’s Tobacco Clinic

• Reasonable prevention technology, such as vape detectors in high-incident areas

• And a clear response process when students are caught vaping at school

And no, the goal is not to make schools feel like correctional facilities.

The goal is to make expectations clear before the first day of school.

Because structure matters.

Prevention, Intervention, and Accountability

A reasonable response process should include all three.

Step One: Prevention and Early Accountability

• Parent contact

• Restorative conversations

• Written reflections

• Education on how vaping impacts health, peers, bathrooms, and school culture

Step Two: Intervention

• Referral to school-based support

• Cessation education

• Addiction-focused resources

• Required parent-school conversations

Step Three: Stronger Consequences for Repeated Behavior

At some point, repeated behavior has to result in meaningful discipline.

Because prevention without accountability will not work.

But accountability without prevention will not solve the larger issue either.

Where I Stand

Now, before someone says:

“My school already does some of this.”

Or:

“Students will always find a way around it anyway.”

I understand the point.

The reality is, most problems in education do not require magical new solutions.

More often, they require a renewed commitment to making existing solutions actually work consistently and effectively.

Because the bottom line for me is this:

Our schools are not machines.

They are living environments.

And those environments are shaped every single day by what we choose to tolerate, reinforce, ignore, prioritize, and invest in.

They are either strengthened through:

• clear expectations,

• accountability,

• support,

• consistency,

• and shared values,

Or they slowly begin to deteriorate through frustration, inconsistency, and avoidance.

And once school culture starts slipping, rebuilding trust becomes much harder.

That is why I believe this conversation matters.

Not because vaping is the only issue schools face.

But because school culture impacts everything.

If this blog sparks more honest discussion, more collaboration, and more practical solutions, then that is a good thing.

Because at the end of the day, we owe it to the student who just wants to use the restroom during their 30-minute lunch break without having to navigate an environment that makes them uncomfortable, frustrated, or distracted from learning.

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are solely those of Curtis Campogni, Candidate for Pinellas County School Board, District 3 (At-Large), and do not represent the official position of any organization or governing body.