Vaping among school-age children is on the rise across Canada.
Abbotsford Senior Secondary School’s vice-principal, Brent Schroeder, routinely has a desk drawer full of confiscated vapes.
“This isn’t a here problem, it’s an everywhere problem, I would say,” Schroeder told Global News.
“But it is eye-opening when you are doing the actual work and see how much of a problem it is.”
One in five students in B.C. has tried vaping, according to Statistics Canada.
In 2022, one in 10 Canadians aged 20 to 24 and one in 15 youth aged 15 to 19 vaped daily compared with one in 50 Canadians aged 25 and older.
But Schroeder said even one in five seems low to him.
“It’s a huge level of concern,” he said.
Addressing the vaping culture is a top priority for the Abbotsford School Board, especially after a nationwide survey out of UBC and co-authored by Dr. Nathan Njieng, the school district deputy superintendent, found that vaping is the number one issue being dealt with in schools.
“It certainly confirmed for us the high number of young people who are engaged in vaping,” Njieng said.
The study found that there is an urgent need for evidence-aligned strategies due to the complexity of the growing issue of substance use in educational settings.
“It’s becoming a huge amount of work that a principal or a vice-principal is doing in their schools on a weekly basis,” Njieng added.
“You are talking about six hours per week … dealing with issues related to vaping as the number one piece in addition to substance use issues.”
B.C. Minister of Education and Child Care Lisa Beare told Global News it is her number one priority to keep kids safe.
“We all want to keep kids safe, which is why educators are taking so much time (at the) school level to make sure they are ensuring kids are safe,” she said.
On Thursday, Global News will explore Beare’s take on the vaping crisis in schools and speak with a physician who specializes in vaping cessation.
