CHRISTIANSBURG — After a pilot program at Auburn High School, Montgomery County Public Schools has announced it will be installing vape detectors in all MCPS high school bathrooms.
Montgomery County Public Schools is working to help students quit vaping and reduce the usage of electronic vapor products in MCPS high schools.
Since the beginning of the 2024-2025 school year, Auburn High School has been piloting an anti-vaping campaign that includes vape detectors in the school’s bathrooms. Following positive feedback and data from the AHS administration, the Montgomery County School Board is expanding the
use of vape detectors in MCPS high schools.
“Vaping in our schools creates a myriad of problems for our students,” MCPS Superintendent Bernard F. Bragen, Jr. said. “We want our students to understand the risks and effects of vaping on their health, but we also want students to feel comfortable using the bathroom without the
fear of vaping around them.”
“I’m so thankful for the efforts of Dr. Bragen and Principal Hurd to pilot vape detectors at Auburn, and I’m encouraged by their initial success,” MCPS School Board Chair Linwood Hudson said.
“Vaping is an epidemic affecting our students and It’s impacting their ability to be productive at school. We’ve heard from students across the county that bathrooms have become unusable due to the amount of vaping that occurs in them. By extending our usage of vape detectors to other schools, hopefully our bathrooms can return to being a safe space for our students. We can’t solve this vaping problem overnight, but this is a great first step.”
With the help of vape detectors, MCPS will tailor the consequences for students caught using vapes towards cessation programming in lieu of punitive measures. To help reach that goal, MCPS is partnering with New River Community Services to offer a curriculum to help students quit.
Vape detectors are currently installed at Auburn High School and will soon be placed in Blacksburg High School and Eastern Montgomery High School. Christiansburg High School will receive the detectors following the current renovation project.
AHS vaping pilot data:
In a recent study taken by MCPS high schoolers 50% of 11th grade students admitted to using a vape every day
On the first day of school, AHS administration received 27 alerts from the vape detectors. By the eighth day of school the number of vaping alerts was down to one.
Data from the first two weeks of school shows a 9:1 ratio of vaping alerts from the girls’ bathrooms to the boys’ bathrooms
A survey has indicated that 60% of 10-12th graders have seen less vaping in the AHS bathrooms.
MCPS
