MOULTRIE — Following an incident that threatened to take a student’s life, the Colquitt County School System is declaring war on electronic smoking devices.

Colquitt County High School Principal Dan Chappuis told Colquitt County Board of Education members Monday that the devices — also called “vapes” — are an epidemic across the country.

He said that, over the last five or six years, every time there’s been a vaping incident at school, he’s talked to the parents and told them, “I’m terrified of the day when one of our kids uses one of those devices, they don’t know what’s in it and we’ve got a serious medical emergency on our hands. Unfortunately, about a month ago, that happened at our school.”

CCHS nurses Tammy Perryman and Whitney Hall treated the girl and described the incident to the board members.

Perryman told the board that around 8:30 a.m., they had two female students come to the nurse’s office and one of the girls told them that her friend was sick and had gotten sick on the bus. The student vomited again and could barely walk, Perryman said. She put an O2 SAT, a device that measures oxygen saturation in the blood, on her and found the level to be okay. However, her blood pressure was elevated, so she continued to monitor her.

“I kept asking, ‘What did you take?’ … I kept watching it and then her O2 SAT started dropping really low and, at that time, we went ahead and administered the Narcan,” she said.

Narcan is a drug that treats a narcotic overdose. The high school, C.A. Gray Junior High and W.J. Williams Middle School have had it available since September of last year. As of Monday, a supply is also at every elementary school.

Perryman said that afterwards, the student admitted taking something through a vape on the bus. She had gotten it from her cousin and thought it had THC in it — the active ingredient in marijuana — but Chappuis said it was later found to have fentanyl and methamphetamine as well.

“If the child had been in the bathroom, she would’ve died. If we hadn’t administered [the Narcan], she would’ve died,” Perryman said.

The girl was sent to the hospital, as was the friend who escorted her to the office. Her friend’s reaction to the drug wasn’t as bad.

In response the school system is instituting a zero tolerance policy.

“If any student is found with an electronic smoking device at school, whether it has drugs or just nicotine, they will be charged with prohibited acts and the student and parent will have to appear in court. Students who are 17 and older will be taken to the Colquitt County Jail,” Chappuis said.

Electronic Smoking Device and Drug Offenses

Electronic Smoking Device

and Drug Offenses

School Discipline

Electronic smoking device:

First offense is three days of out-of-school suspension (OSS).

Second offense is five days of OSS.

Third offense is ten days of OSS and referral to the Achievement Center for no less than one full semester.

Drugs:

First offense is ten days of OSS and referral to the Achievement Center for no less than one full semester.

Law Enforcement

All electronic smoking devices and drug offenses will result in students being arrested and charged with prohibited acts. Students and parents will appear in court where a judge will administer consequences.

This is in addition to existing penalties from the school.

Colquitt County Sheriff Rod Howell explained that vapes are illegal for anyone under the age of 21. The prohibited acts law means neither the school nor law enforcement has to test the devices and prove drugs were present.

Drug paraphernalia refers to pipes used to smoke drugs like methamphetamines, Howell said. As far as vapes go, they are purchased as a nicotine device, which is not illegal for someone who is 21 years and older.

But, School Superintendent Ben Wiggins chimed in, “We don’t have a student on any of our 6-12 campuses that can legally posses a vaping device.”

Chappuis said the plan came about after about six weeks of discussions among school leadership and the sheriff about ways to curtail vape usage.

Responding to a question from Board Member Jon Schwalls about the number of students with vapes, Chappuis said, “This is the tip of the iceberg. If you want my opinion — I’m only guessing — but probably somewhere between 70% and 80% of our students have them or have had them in the last year.”

He further said that there was no specific demographic, age group or gender of student that the vapes could be tied to.

Wiggins said that it’s important for the parents to understand that what they might think is a vape, based on a few years ago, may not look anything like a vape today.

“They come in all kinds of shapes, sizes, colors. Some of them look like highlighters now. Some of them look like an Apple Watch. … We’re trying to keep up with the technology,” Chappuis said.

Chappuis showed board members a slide presentation that gave some numbers on vaping and drug incidents over the past three years at the high school, Willie J. Williams Middle School and Charlie A. Gray Junior High.

He said that, by Christmas, they were on track to have more incidents of drug use on the high school campus that the last two years combined. They are also on track, he said, to eclipse last year’s vaping incidents number.

“So, we’ve gotta do something. We do not want another medical emergency on our hands,” he said.

Board Member Darren Hembree asked if the new policy would be effective immediately.

Chappuis said the schools have a communication plan in place including a letter that will go out to all parents, it will be talked about during the students’ advisory time, it will be talked about during morning announcements and the teachers would post a copy of the discipline actions in their classrooms.

“Our target date is December 1st,” he said.

Wiggins said that the hope is that over the next three days of the information going out, parents will have a “good, hard conversation” with their students at home.