LANCASTER, S.C. — A non-profit in Lancaster is calling on parents to listen and take action after hundreds of vapes and THC devices were confiscated from middle and high schools in the last year.
Channel 9 South Carolina Reporter Tina Terry spoke with advocates who say this is a big problem that parents need to take seriously.
“I think what this represents is a major public health epidemic, that it needs to change from the top down,” said Ashlie Harder, the prevention director with Counseling Services Lancaster.
Harder says she has a tough time processing what’s going on in our schools. Over the last year, 347 nicotine vapes and 107 THC devices were confiscated from schools in the county.
Counseling Services of Lancaster helps dispose of the products. They also help educate, support, and evaluate young people accused of bringing the devices to school.
They also help educate, support, and evaluate young people accused of bringing the devices to school.
Harder says the need for this is urgent.
“They’re not being marketed to adults, clearly, so we are setting up a whole generation of young people to become addicted at the same rate that young people were addicted in the 1970s, 1980s,” Harder said.
She says gas stations and shops are selling the products to people under the age of 21, illegally. She says students are getting hooked fast and coming to school high. Some of them have even gotten sick from taking too much.
“They’re nauseous, they’re vomiting, they have headaches, and they have a fever,” Harder said. “So it can look very much like a viral illness, but in fact, it is a stimulant overdose.”
She wants parents ot be aware of the dangers here and to do everything in their power to educate their kids.
“We want parents to understand that if they are indeed using themselves that the likelihood that their teenager is using and they’re not aware is very, very high,” Harder said.
She says vape detectors that were once on trial at Lancaster High School have now been installed throughout the district to help detect when vapes are being used in specific locations.