Settlement will fund vape sensors in Camas schools

Vaping inside Camas schools is set to get even tougher thanks to a class-action lawsuit settlement with the electronic cigarette maker, JUUL, which has paid more than $1 billion to at least 45 states for marketing its addictive, high-nicotine vaping products to underage teenagers.

Camas School District will receive $87,282 from the JUUL settlement and plans to use the money to increase its vape-detection sensors inside Camas middle and high schools.

The Camas School Board unanimously approved a resolution in March 2023, to join hundreds of school districts across the nation that were joining the class-action lawsuit again JUUL Labs, the maker of the JUUL brand cartridge-based electronic cigarettes and noted then that “nicotine addiction, misuse and misinformation is a growing issue among students in our community, state and nation (and) the rise in nicotine-related issues is being driven by the overt marketing of and ready access to vaping products among our students.”

The resolution noted that the lawsuit “seeks to recover damages on behalf of schools to address the damage caused by the vaping epidemic.”

Two law firms – Stevens Clay, P.S. and Frantz Law Group, APLC — have agreed to represent the school district in the mass-action lawsuit and agreed to take no money for fees, costs or expenses unless the district recovered funds from the lawsuit.

School districts across the nation began joining the mass lawsuit against JUUL Labs in October 2019, and said they wanted to hold the electronic cigarette maker responsible for the youth vaping epidemic and the costs school districts throughout the United States have incurred trying to help students addicted to JUUL’s vaping products.

In Camas, the settlement money will purchase 30 HALO sensors designed to detect vaping and fighting inside spaces such as bathrooms where school districts do not want to place cameras or microphones.

“We’ve put the money toward student safety,” said Camas School District Facilities Director Sherman Davis. “We’ve had some sensors that help pick up vaping or aggression — hitting someone in the bathroom or fighting — and gunshots, that type of thing.”

The district had already installed 15 HALO sensors in a few restrooms inside Camas middle and high schools. Now, Davis said, the district can afford to equip all secondary school student bathrooms with the sensors that, according to HALO, have been installed “in over thousands of school districts nationwide to help combat the vaping epidemic.”

Asked how prominent the issue is in Camas schools, Davis said vaping happens “every day” on Camas school campuses.

“It’s kind of hard to catch them because (the vapes) look like regular pens,” Davis said. “This helps us deter (vaping) and can help educate the kids.”

Davis said the district wanted to use the JUUL settlement money to help prevent vaping, educate students about the dangers of vaping and to make schools safer.

“The district wanted to make sure it went for safety,” Davis said. “We’re replacing cameras and intercoms in the buildings where we were missing some … and for these sensors.”

Davis said the district will purchase 30 of the $859 HALO sensors, and plans to install them inside the remainder of Camas middle and high school restrooms over the next few weeks.

“That is the hardest part — they have to wire them into every bathroom ceiling, which is not an easy task,” Davis said.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), nearly 6% of middle and high school students reported using electronic cigarettes commonly called “vapes,” in 2024. Of those students, 26.3% reported vaping daily and 38.4% reported that they vaped frequently. The number of school-age teens who reported vaping has declined recently, with approximately 1.63 million (5.9%) middle and high school students reporting they vaped in 2024, versus 2.13 million (7.7%) in 2023.

The CDC has stated that “continued surveillance of youth tobacco product use patterns and implementation of comprehensive tobacco control strategies, regulations and enforcement are important for preventing and reducing tobacco product use by youths and associated adverse health outcomes, including a potential lifetime of nicotine addiction.”