KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Three more Kansas City area school districts announced Monday plans to sue electronic cigarette maker Juul.
The school boards in the Blue Valley School District, Shawnee Mission School District and the Unified School District No. 232 in De Soto voted Monday night to advance legal action against the company.
“In my 35 years in education, I’ve never seen anything that has been so rapid and devastating to the health and well-being of students, nor so disruptive to the daily work of teachers and administrators in educating our students, as vaping,” Blue Valley superintendent Dr. Todd White said in a statement.
Board of Education President, Cindy Bowling said the district had to change vaping from a nicotine substance offense to a drug substance offense last year.
“Anything that stands in the way of them having a quality education is a problem, and Juul is definitely standing in the way of that," Bowling said.
All three districts said the legal filings will not affect on their budget.
“Unfortunately, this issue has entered our schools,” USD 232 Superintendent Dr. Frank Harwood said in a release. “Within the last three years, USD 232 saw a significant increase in the number of students possessing and/or using e-cigarettes on campus. Parents and students have asked us to help them address this trend.”
Last month, the Olathe School District became the first metro district to announce plans to sue Juul.
Juul said in a statement to 41 Action News on Tuesday that the company has not marketed its products to youth and does not want non-nicotine users to try its products.
"We need to urgently address underage use of vapor products and earn the trust of regulators, policymakers and other stakeholders," the statement read. "That is why we are focusing on taking aggressive actions to reduce youth usage of our products, working through the FDA's PMTA process and supporting and complying with FDA’s final guidance on flavored products once effective.”
E-cigarettes are not safe for youth or young adults, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, the CDC reported that in 2018 nearly 21 percent of high school students and nearly 5 percent of middle school students had used the devices in the past 30 days.
The 2018 National Youth Tobacco Survey reported a 78 percent increase in high school students using e-cigarettes in 2018 versus 2017, a gain of 1.5 million users.
Teachers have been forced to increase monitoring, and told 41 Action News that students are taking notice of Juul in the media and asking questions.
“I can’t say that they’ve deterred the habit or completely stopped, but they are at least asking questions and second guessing what’s going on with vaping," Chris Jenson, a science teacher at Blue Valley Southwest High School said.
