FCPS to install vape detectors in four middle schools

LEXINGTON, Ky. (ABC36 NEWS NOW) – New detectors are coming to some Fayette County Public Schools.

FCPS COO Myron Thompson,  says settlement money from a lawsuit will be used to battle what school officials have called an ‘epidemic.’

“We were part of a settlement with Juul and we received funding,” said Myron. “We decided to put that funding back into our school facilities in terms of preventing vaping and we started with the middle schools as a logical outreach for that.”

Before the start of the school year four middle schools will have vape detectors installed.

Those schools will be Beaumont, Jesse Clark, Winburn and Southern.

Thompson says the sensors will work similarly to a smoke detector in a home.

“They will be mounted in or near the restroom areas and they will pick up on the chemical reaction from the vape and send an alarm to the administration,” said Thompson.

If a child is caught vaping, the punishment will be left to that particular school’s administration.

One local vape shop says they card every single person that walks through their door, to be sure they don’t sell to those underage.

“If they aren’t old enough, they can’t prove it or they don’t have I.D’s we make them leave the store,” said Jerry Scrivner, CEO of Magic Vapor Shop.  “They can’t even hang in here with somebody that’s of age. We make them wait outside.”

Scrivner says while they may make sure to check I.D., not all businesses do.

“There’s a lot of convenience stores, and I’m not hitting on all convenience stores, there’s some smoke shops that sell vapes that will sell to anybody and will take anybody’s money,” said Scrivner. “People are stealing them off the shelves and taking them to high schools and selling them.”