Recently there has been a trend at Bowie that leads to fines, suspensions, and disappointing hobbies. And that is vaping. Ahh, vaping, what a waste of time, money, and youth. What is a vape, you ask? A vape is a synthetic drug that is inside an electric cigarette that could be filled with a number of things. Various things that teenagers, as well as Bowie students, are nicotine, marijuana concentrate, or fruit flavored “e-liquid”. Does consuming a gaseous mix of chemicals sound “cool”? Because if so, I don’t want to be “cool”.

My Snapchat is flooded with videos of kids vaping at parties, home, and more recently at school. I get that school isn’t the most fascinating of places, and there are a lot of times where students wish they were anywhere else, but vaping at school is so dumb for so many reasons. School is a place to learn, most of my teachers don’t allowed food in their classes, yet alone a synthetic drug.

At Bowie there are various consequences for students who bring vapes on school property, or who actually vape at school. Students will get their “phix”, or vape taken away, the security/school police officers will then escort the student to the office where they will have their parents notified of the situation, and then will lead to a full on suspension or a few days in ISS (in school suspension). I highly don’t recommend vaping at school because it is not the time nor place to make bad decisions like that. I seriously don’t understand why someone would vape at all, it’s chemicals, why would you think vaping and “having a good time” would justify poisoning your body. Life is short enough as is, why waste it being an idiot.

Vaping almost always leads to other drugs, and bad decisions, which is why I am so against it. I don’t understand the appeal of wasting high school getting high, drunk, or just straight up blacking out. High school can be rough sometimes, and so can peoples lives outside of school, but why would you want to waste your days and weekends trying to forget or “feel better”.

Last year a person in one of my classes started to vape, in the middle of class. The teacher gave us an activity to do so we could understand the lesson, and the person was so bored that they whipped out their vape and just started going at it. They were puffing the clouds of chemicals into their sleeve and passing it around. My teacher heard commotion and saw a puff of smoke sneak through the persons sleeve. The teacher was so disappointed in the student, it was heartbreaking watching my sweet, innocent teacher have to get the school’s security guard to come deal with the issue. The person’s vape was confiscated and they were suspended for what felt like months.

So if you or a friend vapes, don’t. And if this hasn’t convinced you to stop making dumb, careless decisions at least don’t vape at school, or you’ll break your teachers heart.