With Dr. Mitchell becoming Claremont High School’s new principal after Dr. O’Connor’s retirement, various changes have been implemented to combat a pre-existing major issue at school: drug usage. Vaping has had devastating effects across education centers in the country, including CHS. A quarter of California students have used e-cigarettes before (PubMed), highlighting its tight grasp on schools. E-cigarette usage is linked to cancer, respiratory issues, and cardiovascular disease. Despite new propositions for banning e-cigarettes for teens altogether, student reporting on the StopIt app, and other various methods led by authorities to control the vaping epidemic, vaping has remained an everyday problem at CHS. That is — until now.
Through some new possibilities, Dr. Mitchell is ensuring CHS does not fall victim to the addictive chemicals in vapes (such as nicotine) and the ploys of powerful smoking companies. The bathrooms at school have been a prominent place for students to use e-cigarettes in the stalls during passing periods, lunch, or even on a “bathroom break.” These restrooms used to remain mostly unmonitored, which significantly increased the problem. Now, Dr. Mitchell has proctors outside of every bathroom, watching the doors during passing periods, class, and lunchtime. Even more so, he is often seen standing outside of the 600s bathroom, a hub for CHS’s most infamous smokers. CHS’s assistant principals also frequently stand outside of the bathrooms as well ensuring for the most part that students do not try to use nicotine inside the bathroom.
Last year, walking into a CHS bathroom was like walking into a smoking zone at the airport. Smoke would be coming out of the bathroom stalls nonstop, and the smell of cannabis and fruit-flavored nicotine would penetrate one’s nose. Now, the bathrooms are (well, mostly) smoke-free. Walking into a bathroom does not mean seeing students abusing drugs, seeing a discarded vape in the sink, or entering a stall to promptly exit it, coughing because of the smoke.
In addition, the all-gender bathroom in the 800s used to be crowded with CHS students who were using e-cigarettes. Students who truthfully needed to use the bathroom were not able to do so. Now, it is guarded by proctors to stop drug usage from occurring inside.
TOK and IB and AP English teacher David Chamberlain is one person who has noticed the changes, with his room being right outside of the 600s restrooms.
“I am excited and happy that Claremont High School is eliminating the vaping issue on campus,” Chamberlain said.
Along with teachers, students have benefited from the shifts as well. Shaw Siegel, a junior at Claremont High School, recounted the differences between his first year at CHS and now.
“l have not seen as much vaping in the bathroom as I used to see during my freshman and sophomore years. It has become better and will continue to,” Siegel said.
The ending of vaping can be traced to the renewed efforts of Dr. Mitchell. The school is solely trying to put an end to the devastating health impacts of vaping and is doing the best it can for its students and help combat one of the state’s most serious problems.
