Youth vaping issue is leading topic at Archway Leadership Summit

Apr. 25—MOULTRIE — The ongoing issue of youth vaping was the leading topic at the Annual Archway Leadership Summit with both incoming School Superintendent Dan Chappuis and Sheriff Rod Howell making presentations on the issue.

Individuals from all aspects of the community, including law enforcement, government agencies, the hospital, businesses and the school system were given a candid look at the issues facing Colquitt County youth during the event.

Held at Southern Regional Technical College, the event, led by Archway Professional Sara Hand, hosted a panel of speakers that addressed youth issues including vaping, teen pregnancy, foster care and mental health.

"Tonight's program is about youth issues and how we can make life better for children and youth in Moultrie and Colquitt County," she said before introducing the panel of speakers.

Chappuis was the first speaker of the evening and started with, "Tonight, I'm going to go ahead and talk about the vaping epidemic that has really swept our country."

He said that the use of electronic smoking devices, including those that contained drugs like THC and fentanyl, have really devastated school systems across the country.

"It's not unique to Colquitt County. This is across the country," Chappuis said and added that school leaders in other school systems have told him that their number one issue was vaping.

"First and foremost, these things are accessible to kids," he said.

He recounted a story that was told to him by Achievement Center Director Darius Dawson, where he saw a 13-year-old student in a store purchasing a vaping device. When the student saw Dawson, he walked out of the store and the store clerk followed the juvenile outside and sold him the device anyway. Chappuis said that the clerks in some stores were not asking for ID's.

"They are extremely accessible to our students. You can hide them. Another thing, they're not limited to any demographic," he said. "It affects all groups of kids."

Chappuis said the electronic smoking devices were extremely addictive and said the hospital shared a story with him about a 13-year-old that they had in their facility that they had to put a nicotine patch on because of withdrawals.

"That's how addictive these devices are. So, we're having to address the issue at a very young age, even in middle school before these students even get to high school," he said.

He also said that the devices the students were using were discreet, smokeless and some had no distinguishable odor coming from them.

"It used to be, we knew when somebody was smoking in the bathroom because you could smell it all the way down the hallway," Chappuis said.

He went on to explain that the smoking devices were small and some of them looked like jump drives so that, even with the school's security cameras, it was hard to verify whether a student was smoking one or not.

Chappuis also said that the incidences of students vaping has grown exponentially and the incidences of students having drugs has tripled from last year.

"I want to encourage you, as parents, to look around and to see what kids have. Search bedrooms, search vehicles. Look and see what's there," he said.

The audience was shown some photos of what the vaping devices might look like including some photos of ones that had been confiscated from Colquitt County students.

"Another thing we're battling with drugs, and this is an accessibility issue, is edibles," he said and showed a photo of edibles that were found in Colquitt County Schools that looked like candy.

Chappuis said that many of the vaping devices were being laced with other drugs like fentanyl.

He said, "We have unfortunately had three incidences on the Colquitt County High School campus where we've had to rush students to the hospital in an overdose state because they used a device that was laced with fentanyl."

He thanked Suzanne Sumner, school nurse coordinator, for having the foresight last year to get Narcan, a drug used to treat a narcotic overdose, in all of the district's schools.

"Without that, we'd probably have three fatalities on our hands. Every school leader and every parent, that's our worse nightmare," Chappuis said.

He talked about some of the steps the school system was taking to address the issue of vaping and its consequences.

First, he said that all of the school resource officers and school employees, across the school district, have been trained on how to administer Narcan. They are also working with Colquitt Regional Medical Center and law enforcement to come up with anti-vaping campaigns to educate both students and parents. They're also putting together curriculums for students and parents that address prevention and addiction. Finally, they have amped-up the school's discipline policy for vaping.

However, he added, "We can't discipline our way out of this, we got to educate our way out."

Sheriff Rod Howell continued the discussion. He said he had intended to talk about drugs and alcohol but the vaping issue was so big.

He asked Sumner to hold up a box that he had brought and told the audience that it was the third case of Narcan that he had gotten for the school system.

"If you don't understand how serious it is. I've said it and said it again, I'm going to be surprised if we don't take a kid out of our school system that is deceased before the year is over with," Howell said.

He said that two weeks ago the Sheriff's Department worked six OD's in Colquitt County and three of them died.

"We don't know why. We can't figure out if it's fentanyl-laced, it its pills, if its methamphetamine-laced. We don't have a clue. It is at our backdoor. It is in our kids' schools," he said.

Howell said that he had tallied-up the numbers, today, going back to December when they had first recognized that there was a vaping crisis in the school system.

"Willie J. Willams Middle School has had 52 vape cases. Sixth and seventh grade, 52. That's a lot," he said.

He went on to say that Charlie A. Gray Junior High School has had 30 vape incidences and four of them tested positive for THC. He said that they've also had two gummy issues where there were direct reactions to the gummies because the kids didn't know what they were taking.

Howell said that Colquitt County High School has had 148 vape cases and 60 of those vapes tested positive for some form of drug including methamphetamines, THC and fentanyl. He said that 88 of them had nicotine.

"This is an addiction," he said matter-of-factly.

As far as the actions the Sheriff's Department is taking, he said that they have contacted every state agency they can and have already taken down one store that was selling vapes with THC mixed with fentanyl.

"We're hitting them hard. We're doing all we can do. Unfortunately, we're gonna have to start charging kids at school," Howell said.

He said that as of today, his resource officers were telling him that they had seen a hold and a slight decline in the incidences in the schools.

"But that's also foolish to think that we've won. The stores are still selling them. Summertime is fixin' to come up and here we go all over again come August. It'll start right back again," he said.

Howell also thanked Sumner for pushing him and the school system to get Narcan in the schools and he was also going to put it with his deputies.

"I'm scared to death that it's going to cost us a life," Howell said.