INEWORD P

Wednesday , March 1, 2023 | Pinewood International American School of Thessaloniki

Pinewood Students Vape in the School’s Bathroom Despite Strict Policy

oteini–Anna Karekla | Contributing Writer

Pinewood is currently facing a major problem with students vaping in the school bathrooms, with about 1/3 Pinewood students reporting to vape or have tried vaping. This is an issue as the act violates school policy and affects the health not only of the vaping students, but also of students who do not vape but want to use the bathrooms.

when I was [a pre-teen] because I was friends with the wrong people and overtime it just became a habit. Now it takes me about a week to finish one vape since I try to only vape while I’m in social situations.”

Another Pinewood student however, explained that even though they understand the harmful effects of vaping, they do not care. They said they love the taste of vape and the feelings stimulated by the substances they smoke. This keeps them, as well as their friends, coming back to e-cigarettes. Speaking from the other perspective, a non-smoker in Pinewood said “I cannot breath sometimes because of the amounts of smoke [...] plus people occupy the bathroom stalls for too long, and when in a hurry, you can sometimes not enter.”

Pinewood’s principal, Dr. Rofaelas said, “…any student caught vaping is immediately removed from classes and serves an in-school suspension the following day. If […] caught vaping again, then his or her parents are asked to come to my office so that we can discuss that student’s future at Pinewood.”

An ex-smoker and parent of a student in the Pinewood community, stated, “Vaping can cause health issues for the users, like lung cancer. Ecigarettes are hard to afford, especially for teenagers, which can make them buy lower quality vapes, which usually contain other harmful substances aside from nicotine.”

A Pinewood student who vapes said, “I started

Another non-smoking Pinewood student explained that it is important to educate young adults on the risks of vaping to stop them from making the initial choice to vape, instead of doing what the school has done up until now to prevent it. “Kids will do what they want, whether they do it at school or not and that’s the bottom line.”

One of the reasons nicotine products are so addictive is because of the short-term pleasure and relaxation the dopamine inside them gives to the user. Unfortunately, this feeling does not last long and that is why users want more. Due to this, vaping is even more addicting to people with naturally less dopamine or who are going through hardships, as they have less motivation and need stronger stimuli to trigger positive feelings. Nicotine becomes an easy solution for these teenage populations, who want to increase their dopamine levels to