VIENNA — At the Feb. 23 Maries R-1 school board meeting, High School Principal Ian Murray told the board about his intention to increase the punishment for students caught vaping or with electronic cigarettes in their possession.

Murray said his plan was to send out a letter to parents and start enforcing the change on Feb. 27.

“It’s not a policy change or anything,” Murray said. “It’s well within policy. The policy is very broad: anywhere from ISS to 180-day suspension.”

The district’s policy allows discipline for a student’s first instance of e-cigarette possession to range from one day of in-school suspension to 180 days of out-of-school suspension. Before the change, the standard punishment for a first offense was three days of in-school suspension. Under the new guidelines, the first offense will result in three days of out-of-school suspension. The administration will immediately contact the parents of students found with e-cigarettes and turn over confiscated items to the Vienna Police Department.

“I have full understanding that kids experiment and do things, but they (e-cigarettes) are becoming a problem, and they are becoming a problem fast,” Murray said.

Board member Mike Kleffner said he had heard about other districts putting sensors in bathrooms to detect vapor clouds.

“They’re anywhere from $1,200 to some of the higher ones are $2,000,” Murray said. “Are they 100 percent accurate? We’ve tried everything from thinking about trying to get metal detectors because the kids will say ‘so-and-so has one’ and the kids will hide it on them. We’ll search pockets and bags, but that’s it. We’ve talked about wands detecting them. They’re just becoming a problem.”

Murray also said he had concerns about how some e-cigarette mixtures include psychoactive drugs such as THC.

“A lot of schools down south are treating vapes as a first offense with drugs,” he said.

Board member Dave Garro suggested adding required drug-prevention classes to the district’s planned response to students vaping.

“Maybe we (should) look at a program for our young adults,” he said. “You have them sit through a class and see what vaping can do to you. Prevention is part of the problem, too. And this isn’t the only school where it happens. It’s all over the place.”

Board president Vicki Bade asked Garro if he intended the classes to be for the entire student body or only those caught breaking the school’s rules against vaping.

“Initially, offenders should be included,” Garro said. “But that should be something that we have for everybody.”

He also said that he had some concerns that out-of-school suspensions might be more appealing than in-school suspension to students caught breaking rules.

Superintendent Teresa Messersmith said she had heard of other districts using in-school suspension as discipline for vaping. During the in-school suspension times, students would complete preventative classes.

Murray said the district could look into preventative classes.

“I don’t know if I would so much the first offense, but definitely the second one, I would require that before they come back they attended (preventative classes),” Murray said. “Even to this point, normally after one offense, I don’t see it. I’m just starting to see more and more new faces.”

“We think it’s important that the effort gets put in,” board member Kacie James said.

“Even if (only) one or two kids learn from that, it’s better than not doing anything,” Garro said.

Kleffner asked which age groups are most often found with e-cigarettes at school.

Murray said eighth graders through sophomores were the most frequent offenders.

Murray said that in addition to sending a letter and texts to parents, he would make an announcement at both the beginning and end of the school day to make sure students were aware of the harsher consequences of having e-cigarettes at school.

In the letter, Murray encouraged parents to talk to their children about the dangers of e-cigarettes and reach out to the administration if they have any questions or concerns.