Sioux Falls school, city officials team up to fight vaping with new 'Break the Clouds' campaign

The Sioux Falls School District and the City of Sioux Falls Health Department are teaming up to fight the nationwide trend of vaping among youth.

This issue has come up in schools time and time again, with warnings about its dangers and potential disciplinary consequences coming from school principals, in a series of virtual family forums and in talks with area superintendents and school leaders.

“If I could find the person who invented (vaping) and started marketing it to children, I would throttle them,” Superintendent Jane Stavem said one year ago at a Greater Sioux Falls Chamber of Commerce meeting, adding even students in elementary school have access to it through family members or by theft.

A few years ago, a middle school administrator called the district office and said they had a couple middle school students in trouble for vaping, senior coordinator of student support services Patti Lake-Torbert said.

“They don’t want to be in trouble, but they’re addicted,” Lake-Torbert said at Monday night’s board meeting. “They don’t know how to stop vaping.”

Roosevelt High School Principal Tim Hazlett sent an email out at the beginning of this school year warning students, parents and staff of what could happen if students vape at school.

Hazlett noted at the time that steps being taken to stop vaping at the campus included office referrals for insubordination for students sharing bathroom stalls, revocation of student bathroom privileges and having to use staff bathrooms, prescribed school discipline for those caught vaping, required vape prevention classes for offenders, possession charges or more.

More: Roosevelt High School principal proactive against vaping, other issues as school starts

Even RHS students complained about their peers hogging bathroom stalls not to relieve themselves, but to vape, Hazlett said at the time. The complaints sparked a student council campaign and an anti-vaping week at the school. Stavem also convened a group of city and school leaders to tackle the problem.

A growing number of students, particularly at the high school level, said this fall that they didn’t feel safe using the bathrooms at school because of how much vaping was happening at that time, district community relations coordinator DeeAnn Konrad elaborated Monday night during the school board meeting.

Board member Dawn Marie Johnson said even her 10-year-old daughter has stories of seeing vaping in her school. Johnson said she also saw what vaping did to her students at Joe Foss Alternative School and Axtell Park School, with heightened anxiety and stress.

“This is very near and dear to me, seeing what it’s done to our young people and the health issues it’s causing,” Johnson said, adding she’d like to help with the campaign.

'Everyone quits in their own way. You are not alone.'

Now, the district and city have launched a “Break the Clouds” campaign with added prevention and education resources for students, families, schools and the community.

School nurses and other health care providers in the community have noticed the increasing number of students vaping and warned about the associated health concerns, like coughing, shortness of breath, nausea, headaches and permanent lung damage, district health services coordinator Molly Satter said. It also has mental health impacts on attention, mood, learning and impulse control, Satter said.

It’s especially alarming to hear about students in elementary school vaping, Satter said. The majority of adult tobacco use starts before the age of 18, added Shelby Kommes, the city’s public health prevention coordinator.

“Quit cards” will be available in schools when students face discipline for having a vaping device. School nurses, counselors, social workers and success coordinators will have them on hand. Those cards contain free resources to help them quit, like the South Dakota Quitline, This is Quitting and the quitSTART app, which are quitting services for youth 13 and up.

“Everyone quits in their own way. You are not alone. Take your first step toward a vape-free life and begin your quitting journey today!” the quit cards state.

Stavem added vaping is an issue across the U.S. and is connected to attendance. She challenged the community to caution the sale and theft of vaping products.

“Schools are seeing that students just aren’t able to stay in the building because they have the addiction and they have to go out and vape,” she said. “That hurts your odds of coming back in. It’s easier, maybe, to stay out at times.”

Efforts are timely before summer break when students have more freedom and less supervision, the district and city stated in a joint press release. The campaign will be on social media, KLRN-TV and City Link. For more information, visit siouxfalls.gov/vapefreeme.

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Sioux Falls School District, city officials launch anti-vaping campaign