Vape detectors giving students their bathrooms back: vice principal - Telegraph-Journal

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Smoking in the bathroom just got a lot harder to get away with in many western New Brunswick high schools. 

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A new pilot project has seen the installation of several HALO sensors that can detect and even distinguish between vaping, cigarette smoke and marijuana. 

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The sensors can even pick up sound abnormalities like shouting and fighting, according to HALO. 

“This multi-sensor provides vape detection, smoke detection, THC detection, and sound abnormalities like gunshots and shouting in areas where a camera cannot be placed,” according to the company’s description. 

They’re not cheap – $2,204 to purchase and install – but worth it, says Nackawic Senior High School vice principal Ross Calder, who says the detectors have given students peace of mind. 

“Non-vaping kids were not wanting to go to the bathroom at break time because they were worried that they were going to get included with the kids that were in there vaping,” he said. “If a teacher came in, they’d be guilty by association.” 

He said the office gets an email notification the moment the sensor detects something unusual in the bathroom. 

Paul MacIntosh, communications director with Anglophone West School District, said the sensors are installed as schools request them. So far more than 40 sensors have been fitted in bathrooms in high schools throughout the region, and even in some middle schools. 

Anglophone North School District also reports having the units installed in one high school. 

Calder said his school reached out for the detectors after a student-led group – Students Together Moving to Prevent Tobacco Use (STOMP) – conducted a survey that found there were concerns about vaping activity in washrooms. 

In a brief email, Education Minister Bill Hogan said districts will be analyzing the results of the pilot project.

“Once those results are available, we will look at future possibilities,” he wrote.

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Vape detectors giving students their bathrooms back: vice principal - Telegraph-Journal
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