Schools nowadays are having more issues with students coming to school high, or having marijuana or vapes on them or in their vehicle while on school grounds.
Nicotine is not only illegal for anyone now under the age of 21, but it is awful for your body and kids do it for fun now. Marijuana, on the other hand, is legal for those who are 18 and over with a medical card, but our school handbook states that it is against the rules to have it on school grounds.
Students all know these rules, but do not care enough to follow them. Students are vaping in the school bathroom instead of being in class, or they come to school high as a kite and smell like it as well, which makes it even more obvious. Students are finding people older than them to buy them vapes or sell them marijuana. Usually, the people buying these things are recently graduated students and that’s how these students have connections.
The underaged persons themselves in possession of alcohol can be fined $200 to $600 or if they are 17 years old, they can be charged with the juvenile crime of illegal possession.
Personally, to stop these school issues, I would have random locker checks and bag checks while having the police and a search dog going around the school. If enough kids are getting caught, then eventually the hope would be that they will smarten up and at least stop bringing their habits into the school.
Vaping is not the kind of habit that can help you in any healthy way. It can trigger mental disorders such as anxiety or bipolar disorder, and it ruins your body and can give you popcorn lung, a new health hazard, according to the American Lung Association. Marijuana can help people’s mental health or physical health, but also is not recommended to be used by someone with a developing brain.
All of this comes down to having enough self-respect to not put yourself as a student in the position of getting in trouble with an illegal substance on school grounds and having enough respect for authority to not bring anything like that into school.
Tehyla Wilson is a senior at Richmond High School.