New Zealand’s ministry of education data shows that the number of school stand-downs increased to 20,980 in 2021 up from 18,180 in 2020. This increase in the cases of school stand-downs has been blamed on increased cases of students vaping in the country. Â Studies show that smoking and vaping among school children are on the rise.
A breakdown of the school stand-down numbers shows that those cases that were attributed to smoking alone were 2865 in 2021. This is a 59% increase from 2020 Â when the cases were only 1210. Â Â When vaping is included the number of standdown attributed to smoking and vaping increased by 75% between 2020 and 2021. Â This lays the clear ground for why many in the school system feel that smoking and vaping among school children is becoming a problem.
However, anti-smoking advocacy groups now say that excluding students from class just because they were caught vaping in school is not solving the problem. Â According to Ben Youdan, the director of the Action for Smokefree 2025 organization, Â standing pupils down from school due to vaping or smoking issues will be counterproductive in the fight against vaping in schools. Â He points out that there is evidence from other drug and substance fights in the past that shows that excluding students from school does not discourage them from using the substance of their choice.
“Using stand-downs as a punishment for kids found with vaping products is telling the kids that you don’t belong here,” he says. He believes that this will make the students hate school and their teachers and not the behaviour that caused the problem. Children need to feel that they belong and they are safe in school. This is the only way to have honest conversations that can change behaviour. Â Excluding students from school does not create a healthy space to deal with issues relating to vaping and addiction to those substances.
Youdan wants schools to create an environment where they can honestly talk to youngsters using tobacco products. He says this is the only way the school will understand each learner and will help these youngsters keep off those harmful products. Â Addiction is a problem that requires long-term management and is not something that can be solved by exclusion from school for a few days, he adds.
Youdan argues that smoking is on the decline in the country with just about 2% of school-going kids smoking. However, he is quick to point out that vaping is on the rise. Â This is creating a new problem that requires better methods to manage.
Already the New Zealand government is working on ways to help children avoid using vaping products. In 2020 the government passed a new law to stop its young people from easily accessing nicotine-containing vape products. Last year the government enacted another law that will ban the sale of tobacco products to individuals born after 2008.
Many stakeholders feel that the government is taking the right steps to protect the young from the dangers of tobacco products. However, they say that more still needs to be done by those involved to empower youngsters to make the right choices regarding tobacco products. However, they insist that stand-downs which exclude kids from schools for five days or less a term will not work and should not be used.
