Laredo ISD unveils multi-tier vaping response: prevention campaign, first-time-offender diversion and a proposed grant

Laredo ISD on Feb. 13 outlined a multi-part plan to reduce student vaping that combines prevention messaging, a campus-level program for student-code violations and a first-time-offender diversion that would defer arrest for eligible youths.

District staff said the district recorded 235 vaping-related discipline incidents in 2023–24 and told trustees the problem is rising this school year: as of Feb. 10 staff reported about 60 incidents in middle schools (up from 35 at the comparable point last year) and about 118 incidents in high schools (up from 76), according to figures presented by district staff.

District officials said the plan — branded internally as ‘‘FOCUS’’ (Fostering Opportunity for Change, Upliftment and Success) — contains three linked programs: (1) a prevention campaign with posters, PSAs and an informational website; (2) Laredo ISD Inspiring Families Together (LIFT), a campus-level program for student-code violations that would reduce disciplinary placement time by 75% for qualifying students; and (3) CHANCE (Creating Hope and New Choices for Everyone), a first-time-offender diversion for nonviolent criminal charges that staff said would require a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the district’s police department and the juvenile justice board under Family Code Section 52.

"FOCUS stands for Fostering Opportunity for Change, Upliftment and Success," said Dr. Eduardo Lopez, the district’s coordinator for at-risk intervention and student hearing officer. "We went ahead and launched an LISD Against Vaping website where there's a lot of information there."

Lopez described LIFT as a program that would deliver mandatory classes, community-service hours and monthly coordinator check-ins and said the program is patterned on an approach used by a neighboring district. "This 1 is the CHANCE program... it would be deferred. That detainment would be deferred. So they would not be detained," Lopez said, describing CHANCE’s aim to avoid the youth’s processing at the youth village when criteria are met. He added that the CHANCE program would be targeted to students ages 10–16 and that successful completion would leave students without an arrest on their record.

"Hopefully, when we deal with a child and they have a deferred arrest and they make it through our program, they would never get arrested," Lopez said.

District counseling staff and partners are lining up treatment and monitoring services. Directors said they had already drafted participant manuals and a program handbook and had applied for a juvenile-justice/truancy grant to cover testing and treatment services; staff told trustees they need a board resolution on the March agenda to complete the grant application process.

Chief Hill of the district police department answered trustees’ questions about criminal consequences. "So if they get caught with a vape that has THC, the amount does not matter. It becomes a state jail offender," Chief Hill said.

Trustees pressed for prevention and enforcement details. Trustee Dr. Martinez urged aggressive community advocacy to restrict vape retailers near campuses, arguing easy local access drives student use. Several trustees asked for more frequent canine and random sweeps; police staff and counselors said canine teams detect vape devices and perform randomized sweeps and that a monthly written report on canine activity and sweep locations is distributed to trustees in board updates. Police said they recorded 58 vape-related arrests in 2023–24 and 53 so far in the current school year.

Counseling staff described the district’s prevention resources: in-school curricula (including Too Good for Drugs and Catch My Breath), on-site LCDC counselors and community partners that provide clinical evaluations and treatment referrals. Staff said presentations for teachers and parents were offered this year and that campuses may schedule additional site-level training for staff who missed district sessions.

Trustees asked how the programs would be funded and whether drug testing would be required. Staff said drug testing and substance-abuse treatment would be optional in LIFT but would be a considered component of CHANCE; the proposed grant application would subsidize testing and treatment if awarded.

The board did not vote to adopt the programs on Feb. 13. Trustees directed staff to bring a draft resolution and the CHANCE/LIFT program materials to a future meeting and requested the draft participant manuals and MOU language be provided to trustees for review before any final approval.

Community and campus leaders described the effort as a combined prevention and diversion strategy that aims to keep students in instruction when possible while offering treatment and court alternatives for those who need it.

At the meeting end staff said they will submit a resolution for the March board meeting to support the grant application and requested trustees’ review copies of the CHANCE and LIFT manuals prior to that meeting.