The gist
PISD’s board at its Oct. 10 meeting approved an exemption to House Bill 114, which changed how school districts across Texas are allowed to handle cases of students caught with vape pens.
The bill made the punishment harsher for those caught with nicotine pens but also lowered the penalty for THC pens, which is the psychoactive ingredient found in marijuana.
Citing a lack of available seats in their DAEP as well as a desire to implement more “progressive discipline,” district officials sought an exemption to that part of the new law.
The exemption will still allow district officials to place students in a DAEP if they deem it necessary, Superintendent Larry Berger said at the Oct. 10 meeting.
Diving in deeper
Leading up to the bill’s implementation Sept. 1, officials involved in passing the bill, including author and state Rep. Ed Thompson, R-Pearland, said the goal was to increase the overall punishment for vaping but also lower it for those caught with THC.
Students caught with a THC pen prior to the bill were subject to felony charges and were automatically placed in county education programs, also called juvenile justice alternative education. Thompson in August said those programs were “overrun.”
At the same time, while lowering the punishment for THC pens, the goal was to also deter students from bringing any type of vape device onto campus.
Leading up to the implementation, PISD officials said they had no intention of making changes to their programming or policies on how they deal with vape devices.
At the Oct. 10 meeting, however, Berger said the district did not have the capacity to put students caught with vapes into its DAEP. The law provides a carve out for sending those students to in-school suspension if there are no seats available.
Berger added the district at no point has had that level of punishment for any other nicotine device, including regular cigarettes or dip, saying a DAEP is ”far and above anything we’ve ever done related to nicotine cigarettes.”
“[Students using nicotine] has been an ongoing problem for years as everything else has gotten complicated now,” PISD board President Sean Murphy said. “But obviously punishing them harsher than what they would be for just a normal cigarette for the same thing, lumping everyone into one category, makes it more difficult.”
What’s next?
Officials at the meeting acknowledged the challenges that go along with preventing vape pens on campus.
The goal, Berger said, is to try for a more “progressive discipline” that aims at addressing whys students are vaping and mitigating addiction. To that end, the district also partners with the Bay Area Council on Drugs and Alcohol.
District officials have also installed vape detection devices across many campuses, which were approved prior to the 2023-24 school year starting.
