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 clusters of alerts were later identified as non-vape sources: "there were 65 vape alerts from 1 dressing room... a certain hair product the girls were using," and Allison Smith, Midway High School principal, added the spikes included "hairspray and hot curling irons."

On verified behavior incidents (the district's discipline records), staff reported the high school had 102 reported vaping-related behavior incidents two years earlier and 68 the most recent year reported, with middle schools moving from 29 incidents to 6 in the same comparison. The district cautioned that an "alert" does not always equal a verified incident; a single student event in a restroom can register multiple alerts. "An alert is when the vape sensor alerts and says there's a vape going on. An incident is when we actually have a student and we put a behavior incident in our system that we have verified," a district presenter explained.

Implementation details and adjustments: district technicians tied detectors into campus cameras and the Grama/Halo monitoring platform so that when a sensor triggered, administrators could pull a short camera clip for investigation. Staff said custodial cleaning products and some personal-care products produced false positives; the district has asked the vendor to adjust algorithms and continues to filter and investigate alerts before recording incidents.

Consequences and student response: staff reminded the board that district discipline for vaping carries required consequences; the high school principal said the campus communicated the presence of detectors ahead of activation and used the launch as a campus behavioral reset in January. "When we turned the vape detectors on the very first day, we were in shock that we had 85 hits... We turned ours on in November and they didn't I don't know if they didn't believe us but, like, the numbers ticked down all the way to Christmas time and then when we came back we had a reset on behavior in January," Allison Smith said. Students interviewed informally by staff said restrooms feel safer during passing periods and that there is less visible vaping.

District observation and next steps: staff said detectors have become a deterrent on campus, that verified incidents have declined (district figures showed a 33% reduction at the high school and a 55% reduction at middle schools in behavior incident counts compared to earlier years), and that they will continue to refine sensor settings and communication. Administrators noted the system requires ongoing review to distinguish true positives from false positives and to respond in proportion to each verified event.

Discussion vs. decision: the board received the report as an information item; there was no formal policy change or procurement decision at the meeting. The staff presentation included training, parent communication and a request for vendor algorithm adjustments.

Ending: district staff said they will continue to monitor sensor data, refine filters with the vendor and report trends to the board; administrators said the detectors are one element of a broader behavior-management and student-support strategy.