Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Sequim school administrators saw vaping as an emerging issue. Now that students are back in classroom, so to is the problem.
Sequim School Board directors on March 7 agreed to join dozens of other districts across the state and country in litigation against a giant in the vaping industry.
Directors heard presentations from attorney William B. Shinoff of Frantz Law Group, APLC of San Diego, Calif., and Garrett Williams of Stevens Clay, P.S., a Washington state law firm, about joining in the litigation against Juul Labs, Inc., along with the e-cigarette maker’s largest investor, Altria Group Inc., that Shinoff said is supported by more than 800 districts across the nation.
That number, Williams noted, includes 31 school districts in Washington state, from as small as 50 students to as many as 25,000.
Attorneys are seeking damages for illegally targeting underage children. Each district can choose how to use the funds, they said.
If the suits are not settled by November 2022, the attorneys said, it would go to trial.
Vaping — the use of heat to vaporize a liquid to inhale, typically of nicotine, or marijuana, allowing someone to get a high — is relatively odorless and designed to be discrete. As small as the size of USB sticks, they can easily fly under the radar of unsuspecting parents or teachers.
Between 2014-2018, there was a 20 percent increase in the number of youth reporting electronic cigarette or vape use in Washington, according to the state’s Healthy Youth Survey.
“Now we are dealing with a new general of nicotine addicts based on their marketing,” Shinoff told Sequim school board directors. “In our opinion, the public entity that has been hit the most of [this epidemic has been schools.”
He said that school districts can join simply by filling out a form detailing any financial harm the district has suffered to date, from money spent on detectors to educational programs and staff time spent om handling vaping issues.
Any funds recovered from a suit would go back to schools and communities for prevention, education and deterrence, including support for those addicted and hiring of counselors with addiction backgrounds, Shinoff said.
Districts would not have to pay legal fees in this action, he noted.
“[We’re] trying to get communities together to acknowledge that this is an issue,” Shinoff said.
Sequim High School principal Shawn Langston acknowledged the vaping issue just before a report about SHS at the March 7 meeting, saying, “It has ramped up so much more since we came back. I’m glad that you guys are taking this on; we are, too.”
At the same meeting, Sequim Middle School principal Mark Harris noted, “The target audience is our kids.”
The State of Washington’s 2018 Healthy Youth Survey reported that about 30 percent of 12th-graders in Washington self-reported vaping in the previous 30 days.
“It’s time to have an intentional effort to get out the word: ‘This is not OK.’ If you’re going to be adult and vape that’s your problem,” board director Larry Jeffryes said, before the unanimous vote.
“I’ll be in favor of this motion. [It] sends a message to the community and the kids.”
