Aussie schools are installing silent alarms in bathrooms as part of the latest ‘unhinged’ effort to curb youth vaping.
The controversial tech – which has seen a furious pushback online – would send discreet alerts when students were suspected of using e-cigarettes.
Shockingly, the children would then reportedly be locked in the bathroom until a teacher searched them for hidden vapes.
The move sparked outrage amongst parents and harm reduction advocates, who warned the alarms were the latest symptom of a ‘panicked’ moral outrage over e-cigarettes.
They stressed the new tech is nothing more than a breach of human rights, even threatening to sue if their children ever fell victim to this ‘reprehensible’ new vape-busting strategy.
Responding to what he dubbed the latest ‘what the f*ck news story’, vocal advocate Charles A Gardner said there would be ‘hell to pay’ if a teacher ever locked his child in the bathroom.
Gardner’s fury was echoed by a chorus of critics, including proud mother, harm reduction supporter and Twitter user ‘VapinSquirrel’, who sarcastically said:
“Ah yes, children love to be searched.
“As a parent, do that to any of my children and there’d be big-time hell to pay; this moral panic of ‘vapemadness’ is just going too far.”
She added that ‘detectors could give off false alarms’, which could result in students being wrongly accused and may well deter kids from wanting to use the bathroom at all…vapers or not.
Despite the international uproar, schools are still defending the move, calling it a necessary precaution to protect kids from the dangers of e-cigarettes.
Mark James, deputy principle of St Bede’s College, Melbourne, one of the schools using the new detectors, said:
“Of course staff don’t want to be checking the toilets.
“We try and do everything in our power to stop kids from engaging in activities that are harmful to themselves…it’s difficult because they are so easy to conceal.”
However, this sadly isn’t the first time that children have been caught in the global crossfire between the harm reduction community and anti-vaping lobbyists.
Over the last few issues of Vapouround Magazine we’ve reported on cops brutalising and tasing teens and school children being strip searched down to their underwear…all in an effort to protect them from the ‘dangers of vaping’.
Michelle Minton, senior policy analyst for the Competitive Enterprise Institute, said:
“Can we call it a war yet?
“This is getting really insane and by ‘this’ I mean the violations of human rights the rest of society is willing to tolerate because of their hatred of nicotine users.”
Here are just some of the critics who have hit back at the installation of school vape detectors.
As a parent of a child with special needs, I find this appalling and unacceptable.
— Michael Redfearn (@RedfearnMike) March 19, 2022
So, like the opposite of a smoke alarm.🤔
Detect smoke and *lock* the doors.
What could possibly go wrong..😑 https://t.co/hybdOoCmLn— Marijuana (@marijuanacomau) June 21, 2022
Prisons. Schools. Not much difference really these days. Except, you may actually learn useful skills in prison.
— StefanDidak (@StefanDidak) June 21, 2022
They’re unhinged. They pretend it’s about vaping and THC, but aren’t nearly as concerned about drugs, tobacco and alcohol. Apartment bldgs are using them too. When something is detected, it takes video & emails/texts an alert. pic.twitter.com/4HEQwNS1iy
— ShantyWorld is on #Mastodon (@ShantyMinister) June 21, 2022
