4 Knox County Students Hospitalized After Using Vape Pen
The Lynn Camp High School SRO said the students were experiencing shortness of breath, elevated heart rate, tiredness, and confusion.
Photo: master1305, Adobe Stock
CORBIN, Ky. — Authorities are investigating after four Knox County Public Schools students received medical care this week due to side effects from vaping.
The school resource officer (SRO) at Lynn Camp High School said the students used the vape pen before school and reported shortness of breath, elevated heart rate, tiredness and confusion, reports WYMT. Three of the students were taken to the emergency room and one was taken to a family doctor.
The SRO said the vape pen contained THC but that he was not sure if something else was in it. However, he did not call it an overdose. Several vapes were turned over to the police.
School officials shared a letter from Superintendent Jeremy Ledfordon on Facebook Wednesday, warning students and parents about the dangers of vaping and its consequences.
“These battery-powered devices contain nicotine and other substances in the form of an aerosol,” reads the letter. “Students may not know what illegal, and sometimes fatal, substances have been added — especially if they share among peers.”
The letter also emphasized vaping is against school policy and that officials “pledge to hold students fully accountable if found in possession or use.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) cites many dangers of vaping, including the highly addictive nature of nicotine which can harm adolescent brain development. The group also stresses scientists are still learning about the long-reaching effects of vaping both physical and mental health.
K-12 campus officials across the country have reported significant negative impacts on students, disruption of classroom instruction, a severe drain on available personnel, re-allocation of limited staff development time for teachers and other school staff, a strain on existing student assistance programs, increased expenditures, medical emergencies, and other significant problems resulting from e-cigarette use by students, according to a recent Campus Safety op-ed.
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About the Author
Amy Rock, Executive Editor
Amy is Campus Safety’s Executive Editor. Prior to joining the editorial team in 2017, she worked in both events and digital marketing.
Amy has many close relatives and friends who are teachers, motivating her to learn and share as much as she can about campus security. She has a minor in education and has worked with children in several capacities, further deepening her passion for keeping students safe.
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I think everything possible should be done to educate the kids about what can be in a vape that could and probably would kill them and if someone is caught selling around schools they should be prosecuted.
The courts/youth service offices are overwhelmed with the high volume of nicotine and THC vape offenders yet the special units such as ABC have little interest in holding those distributing to under age accountable. FDA must get directly involved immediately to control a currently and completely uncontrolled unregulated market. Educating students only works if they are willing to lend you their attention and most do not think it will happen to them. They are all to willing suck on another students vape that they had tucked away under their bra or inside their shorts or underwear, if they are the least concerned about contracting or spreading Covid or any other virus they will not care about an unknown lethal substance in a vape as well. Its is way to easy to hide, cover up the vapor from a vape device within the restrooms, class rooms and even the hallways.
Unfortunately i believe it will take the loss of others they may know or at a greater and widely publicized volume before it will directly influence those young and now addicted users.
A great example is all the reaction to highly publicized “mass shootings” and student led “Teens Vie for Top Spot in Homeland Security’s Targeted Violence Prevention Competition” in regards to gun violence. Yet there are numerous guns in students possession within dozens of schools across the U.S. on any given day that are never found.