Midway ISD reports drop in vaping incidents after installing detectors at secondary schools

Midway Independent School District installed electronic vape detectors in restrooms and locker rooms at its three secondary campuses and district staff reported a decline in verified vaping incidents and in sensor alerts after the devices were switched on.

"We are gonna talk about the effectiveness of the vape detectors," Paul Opel said when the district summarized the intervention, its rollout and results. District staff said detectors were installed at Midway High School over the Thanksgiving break 2024 and at the two middle schools over the winter break 2024; the district also ran an explicit parent- and student-communication campaign and trained administrators on the monitoring system.

Results presented to trustees included both sensor alerts and verified behavior incidents. Officials reported that high-school sensor alerts fell from 124 in January of the reporting semester to 18 in May, a reduction staff described as an 85% decline in alerts over that semester after filtering out known false-positive causes. Paul Opel said some…