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Murphy – Cherokee County Schools has joined a class-action lawsuit against electronic cigarette manufacturer JUUL.
The Cherokee County Board of Education voted Thursday in favor of joining the suit following a discussion with board attorney Dean Shatley.
Andrews Middle School Principal Lance Bristol attested to the fact that vaping had become a serious issue, dumping out a bag nearly filled with confiscated electronic cigarettes to start the presentation. He said the devices in the “amnesty bag” made up a single day’s worth of confiscated vapes.
“Over the past several years, there have been multiple class-action lawsuits against the e-cigarette maker JUUL by schools and municipalities” Shatley said. “You may have even heard, I think it was sometime this summer, the attorney general of North Carolina settled a lawsuit with JUUL for about $40 million.”
He said the lawsuit the district was looking at originated in California, and a few North Carolina school districts had begun to join the suit. The districts in North Carolina are represented by Greensboro-based Ward Black Law.
“They have contacted us, and they have also reached out independently to a lot of superintendents, so this kind of prompted our memo to the board and to the superintendent about the potential of joining this class action,” Shatley said.
Shatley said it would not cost the district any money to join the suit, but that there could be a substantial time commitment. He also estimated that any payout the district would receive would be in the five-figure range.
However, he emphasized that there would be no way of knowing in advance.
Shatley said the district should consider whether electronic cigarettes are an issue, and whether the district could spare the time and personnel.
“What you see is you’ve got students who need a nicotine hit in class, and it makes a difference,” Bristol said. “Adults can go out and have a cigarette break, but these kids, they want to get up and go to the bathroom all the time. It disrupts their class.”
Bristol said in some cases, vape pens had been confiscated with THC in them. Students were modifying the devices to be able to use illegal drugs.
Additionally, he said students had been caught taping the devices to their arms so they could discreetly vape in class, blowing the smoke down their sleeves. He said in one instance, a student given in-school suspension for vaping had been caught vaping in the bathroom a second time during in-school suspension.
“It’s tough, and it’s a problem,” Bristol said. “It’s not for me to say whether or not we enter into that lawsuit, but it has a dramatic effect on student learning, and it has a dramatic effect on student behavior. This is one day in a school of 200 kids.”
He said students were repeatedly being caught with vapes, and that the myriad confiscated electronic cigarettes in the bag were just from students who voluntarily gave their devices prior to a search by the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office.
“They’re marketed to young folks,” said board member Joe Wood, who is also chief deputy of the sheriff’s office.
Bristol said he was attempting to get vape sensors to install in bathrooms at his school. The sensor would pick up clouds of vapor from the e-cigarettes, and trigger a signal in the front office.
“I hope what we get to do is inform parents,” Bristol said. “I don’t think they know about all this, I really don’t. I hope that if we get through to a handful of parents, then that information will spread, and that’s what our goal is.”