Drug use in restrooms has been a recurring problem for many schools, including Lingnore High, over decades. Though the many attempts at completely eradicating drug use in school restrooms have proved to somewhat decrease the amount of students using drugs in the restrooms, they have not completely eradicated it yet.
As time passes, the types of drugs used inside school bathrooms have changed. Students today have traded out their cigarettes, or other drugs they may have used,for vapes.
Now, the most frequently used mode of drug use occurring in the restrooms is vaping. According to a CDC article, vapes “are devices operated by batteries that heat a liquid and produce an aerosol, which is a sort of vapor or a mix of particles, released in the air. They come in many shapes and sizes that typically contain nicotine. Vaping nicotine leads to cancer-causing chemicals, heavy metals such as nickel, tin and lead, flavoring that can lead to lung disease, volatile organic compounds, and tiny particles that can be inhaled deep into the lungs.
An article called “Vaping and Marijuana, what you need to know” stated vapes can also contain marijuana instead of nicotine. Some students may be able to figure out how to use marijuana in nicotine vapes using Youtube tutorials, due to the similar functions. Vaping marijuana leads to difficulty with critical thinking skills, impaired reaction time and coordination, decline in school performance, and increased risk in mental health.
“Vapes are hard to detect,” Linganore High School (LHS) Principal Michael Dillman said. “They’re easily hidable. You know, people can put them [where] we don’t see them, [so] we don’t know.”
Though vapes are easily hidden from passing teachers or administration, they are often left behind for custodians after school.
LHS custodian Deborah Ketterman detailed the extent of the issue as she experiences it through the course of her work.
“There’s Coors Light cans in the rag box; they’re getting snookered at school,” Ketterman said. “[We find] whole bottles of wine, miniature vapes [in the bathroom]. They take the vapes, and they shove them in the commodes. They clog the toilets up with them.”
Ketterman has worked at Linganore for three years and has found many items related to drugs and alcohol use. When toilets are clogged with vapes it can eventually lead to bathrooms being closed for repair, sometimes for weeks at a time until a plumber is able to fix the toilet; otherwise, students continue to use the toilets and the issue becomes much bigger.
Ketterman is perplexed by the students’ willingness to vandalize the bathrooms at their own expense.
“Why don’t they just throw it in the garbage can?” Ketterman said. “Why do they have to throw it in the commode and clog the toilets up? Right now, my boys bathroom has been shut down since the first day of school.”
Ketterman shared that she takes about an hour to clean the two bathrooms in her wing, C Wing upstairs, and considers her work very tiresome.
She has expressed her concern regarding the issue, sharing pictures with Dillman of the items she has found. Ketterman said that in order to attempt to prevent the use of drugs in the restrooms, her idea would be to make the staff supervise inside the restrooms rather than outside, in addition to closing the bathrooms during class to prevent students from skipping class.
Last school year, In regards to these concerns, one student initiative, Student Voices, worked on plans to address vaping in the bathrooms. One of the initial focuses was to target the root of the issue, which they identified as student addiction. .
“The students designed a number of flyers that they put up in your bathrooms with links to the health department resources for people that might want to quit vaping,” LHS assistant principal Erik Engelstatter, last year’s advisor of Student Voices, said.
The group provided anonymous resources for students to ask for help with a vaping addiction.
Students have shared a mix of opinions on the issue with vaping in the bathroom. While some are not as bothered by it, others say students congregating in the bathroom to vape prevents them from using the bathroom.
“Almost every time I’ve walked in [the bathroom], there are girls vaping,” Linganore freshman Sadie Pomeroy said.
Linganore senior Ryan Schultz said that he has had similar problems in the boys bathroom.
“Every time I go into any restroom here–when it’s unlocked–there’s a whole parade of vapors going through, and even one time I found Zyns in a bathroom stall,” Shultz said.
In addition to vapes, students have expressed their concern about the use of Zyn, a popular brand of oral nicotine pouches that do not release any vapor, which makes them harder to detect and find.
According to Dillman, the school cannot put cameras in the bathrooms because of the invasion of privacy. There are cameras outside the restrooms, but these only show who comes in and out of the bathroom at a specific time. Dillman said that the response time needed to investigate a report renders this information almost worthless.
Frederick County Public Schools are trying their best to eradicate any sort of drug use in the restrooms. They are willing to accept any ideas on how to get rid of this issue, so if anyone is interested in offering a solution, they can find information on submitting public comment to the Frederick County Board of Education here.
