Freshman Landon Dowling feels that students shouldn’t be vaping at such a young age. He said, “I think it is very bad for the health, and second hand smoke is very bad.” He goes on to say, “If you get caught with a vape it could ruin your life.”

He thinks it affects kids and puts a bad influence for some kids in the school. “I think that it puts a bad image on them, it puts Anderson High School at a bad point because you don’t want anybody smoking in your school.”

He thinks the reason that kids at school gravitate towards vaping is because it looks cool. “One, because kids want to look cool and number two, just like cigarettes, it calms people down and that is the only way they know how to do it.”

Dowling opposes vaping in school. We asked Dowling if he thinks that vaping in school makes students happier and he said, “Maybe but it could make them happier because it looks cool or it might make them feel like they fit in or cause it calms them down.”

Landon thinks one way that teachers could step up and be more strict about vaping is by “showing videos of popcorn lung and all the stuff that happens with vapes and things like that.” Landon goes on to say that he is not angry, but disappointed. Disappointed in students, disappointed in the school, and them doing nothing about this you know? They are taking things away and doing bag checks but what is that gonna stop because they could just hide it somewhere like their underwear.”

Landon said if he was the principal at the high school he would “have a health class where it shows you what happens when you vape and have it mandatory at the school.” Landon goes onto say that, “I have vaped before, but I have quit and am 3 years clean. It feels good to be clean.”