On Tuesday, Jan. 7, Lincoln Southwest (LSW) added a new addition to their security system that has become active. Vape detectors have been added to all Lincoln Public Schools (LPS) middle and high schools to help combat the underage vaping taking place in the schools. On Jan. 1, LSW principal Mr. John Matzen sent out an email to parents and students talking about the new addition. 

“Our ultimate goal is to keep the school environment safe, so our communication by email and in the announcements is intended as a preventative deterrent,” Matzen said. “We don’t want to get anyone in trouble. We just want to decrease the amount of vaping and other substance use at our school. The vape detectors are installed in all student restrooms. They are integrated with our camera system, so when an alarm is triggered a video recording is made of students entering or leaving the restroom at that time,” 

Students were made aware of the new vape detectors added to LSW in the daily announcements. Though the news might be bad for some, others feel unaffected or even glad that vape detectors are being added to the bathrooms. 

“I think that they are a really good idea,” sophomore Olivia Brazau said. “It’s a good idea to help get vaping to stop because it’s definitely a problem in our age group.”

If the vape detectors go off, an alert will be sent to administration that will help with quickly identifying the students that were in the bathroom at the time. All students will undergo a search and if a vaping device is found on them, they will be given the direction to go through a Vape Education program. Once a student has had multiple violations with the vape detectors and being caught with a vape, they will be given consequences that range from suspension to expulsion. 

“The vape education program is super smart in my opinion,” sophomore Jacy Hamilton said. “Teaching kids the dangers of vaping is a good way to kind of scare them out of doing it.”