The New Hyde Park-Garden City School District is considering banning electronic cigarettes from the school grounds.
There is no specific mention of them in any board policies, which are currently being updated.
“If you want them prohibited then you have to have them delineated,” Superintendent Robert Katulak explained at the Sept. 29 school board meeting. “And that’s why we do these reviews annually because some new invention can happen and you have to change things.”
E-cigarettes contain nicotine, at reduced levels, as well as other chemicals, and experts are still debating the health risks of the vapor they emit.
The Sewanhaka Central High School District recently banned e-cigarettes in its buildings. Currently, New York State law prohibits smoking within 100 feet of the entrances, exits, or outdoor areas such as athletic fields of any elementary or secondary schools.
In banning e-cigarettes, New Hyde Park-Garden City Park joins a trend that’s sweeping Long Island. Sewanhaka, Lynbrook, Island Trees, Middle County, Central Islip, and Jericho school districts recently enacted their own e-cigarette prohibitions.
Earlier this year, e-cigarettes were banned in public buildings in New York City by the Smoke-Free Air Act. Passed in the last month Mayor Michael Bloomberg was in office, the act banned e-cigarettes in all areas in which regular cigarettes were already prohibited.
According to lead researcher Dr. Lauren Dutra, from the University of California-San Francisco, “E-cigarettes are likely to be gateway devices for nicotine addiction among youth.”
Dutra argues that manufacturers of the electronic cigarette have included alluring flavors, such as bubble gum, cherry, or coffee, which appeal to the youth community. The study also showed that since e-cigarettes contain the same addicting properties as tobacco, it didn’t take long for teens to develop a nicotine dependency and move on to the traditional cigarette.
Another study by the national Center for Disease Control (CDC) showed the number of calls to poison control centers involving e-cigarette liquids rose from one per month in Sept. 2010, up to 215 calls per month in Feb. 2014. According to the CDC, poisoning from e-cigarettes can occur either through ingestion, inhalation or absorption through the skin or eyes.
“Use of these products is skyrocketing and these poisonings will continue,” said CDC Director Tom Frieden. “E-cigarette liquids, as currently sold, are a threat to small children because they are not required to be childproof, and they come in candy and fruit flavors that are appealing to children.”
Board Policies To Change
Several Board of Education policies are up for semi-annual review in the New Hyde Park-Garden City Park School District. The first reading of updated policies will take place at the Oct. 6 Board of Education meeting with a second reading and potential adoption at the November meeting.
“Twice a year we review our board of education policies for updates,” Katulak said. “Before we adopt these changes we always send them to council for review. They will make changes if necessary.”
Many of the policies mentioned at the work session were still under legal review and specific proposed changes were not discussed out loud.
It was stated that student harassment and bullying prevention provisions would be updated to include cyberbullying. This is applicable if harassment begins out of school online but is then brought into the classroom and causes an interruption, officials said.
“Fortunately, as an elementary district we don’t face this as often, but it does happen,” Katulak said.
Policy 7513 is one still under legal review and refers to the administration of medication to students. Due to the prevalence of asthma, it is being considered that spare inhalers should be kept on school grounds in case of an emergency or if a student should forget theirs at home. Trustee Joan Romagnoli is a proponent of keeping the inhalers on hand and allowing trained personnel to administer them.
“You’d hate to see somebody go into respiratory arrest, you know, because you couldn’t give them their medicine,” Romagnoli said.
— Rich Forestano contributed to this story
