Is “Juuling” an  Epidemic in American schools?

By: Lucas Ballard

November 26th, 2018 - Greenville New York News

As all of us here at GCS know, there has been a popular teenage “epidemic” happening all across America. This being, teenage vaping. Specifically, our school focused on teens using a popular device called, Juul. This is not news to us. Our school took the time to bring in a public health educator, and present grades nine through twelve on the dangers of “Juuling” and the use of other electronic cigarettes. 

When asking some high schoolers that go to our school if they have ever used a Juul before, 13 kids said yes, and 14 kids said that they have not. As a follow-up question, I asked everyone if the presentation that the school showed us changed their opinion or outlook on Juul, or if they would stop Juuling. Some common responses I got were, “no, not really…”. One “hell no! It made me want to go rip my Juul in the bathroom”, and one, “hell no… It made me want to do it more!” One high schooler, who had said that they Juul, said “I went home and read the box… it said like, it can cause cancer!”

A national study of teens juuling states “a 2018 study found that nearly one-fifth of youth (ages 12-17) surveyed reported having seen JUUL used in their school.”

In conclusion, every school takes different approaches on educating their students about vaping. There are students that retain this information and follow it, and there are students that do not. Many health professionals state that if you do not smoke cigarettes currently, there is no need to start using an electronic cigarette.