BRIDGEWATER, Mass. — Students at Bridgewater-Raynham Regional High School are flushing disposable vape pens and cartridges down toilets, clogging the septic lines and prompting nearly everyday maintenance calls, administrators day.
Easily dozens, but likely hundreds, of vape products have been sucked out of the pipes with a wet vacuum, Derek Swenson, superintendent of Bridgewater-Raynham Regional School District, told Boston 25 News Thursday.
“We’re finding that students are going to the restroom, using the vape pens and then disposing of them by flushing them down the drainage system,” Swenson said. “We’ve had to bring in our maintenance crews and plumbers, and we’re finding cartridges and full vape pens. It’s incredibly disappointing.”
Swenson says vaping incidents plummeted when Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker’s statewide ban on vape products took effect.
“We saw a significant decline and decrease in use and possession of vapes on campus,” Swenson said of when the ban was imposed. “And when the ban was lifted, this new problem started to occur.”
The school sent a letter to parents, informing them of the problem and new temporary restrictions for bathroom access.
“In addition to the exorbitant costs we are incurring, it is also causing us to have to shut down bathrooms on a daily basis until the maintenance crews can resolve the issues,” the letter reads.
“Please know we are not denying any student access to use a restroom,” the letter goes on to say, detailing the new bathroom rules.
Students are now only allowed to use the school bathrooms when passing between classes or, if in the first 10 minutes of a lesson, with a bathroom pass. In an emergency, a student can get a pass to the nurse’s office. The only exceptions are those with “noted medical issues.” Those students have full access to school bathrooms,
Swenson fears there could soon be a flood, but the bigger problem, he says, is vaping at all.
“This epidemic has spiraled,” Swenson said. “The larger concern for us obviously is it being a health hazard for these kiddos… These issues start at home, and we hope parents are having these conversations with their kids.”
Since the letter was sent to families, the situation does not seem to have gotten better. On Wednesday, the head custodian had “almost a jar full” of vape products he had removed from the septic lines, Swenson said.
“This is a taxing situation on our facilities,” Swenson. “Hopefully, we can rectify this situation, but it doesn’t seem like it’s doing all that much at this point.”
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