Charlotte County Public Schools (CCPS) has adopted a no tobacco or vape products on school property policy.

State law currently does not allow smoking in school or on school buses and buildings.

According to Interim Superintendent Robbie Mason CCPS is now following Gov. Ralph Northam’s bill that was signed early this year to ban nicotine products on all school property or at school-sponsored events.
“This means all tobacco products and nicotine products such as vapes are banned on school property and this includes students, staff, parents, visitors or anyone on school grounds,” said Mason.

Mason also stressed the point that this ban would carry over to anyone attending after school events such as games.
Although CCPS has always been smoke-free, this new policy adds vape products to the list. “This includes the Juuls, vape or any kind of that kind of product,” explained Mason.

According to state statistics, about 12 percent of high school students in the Commonwealth use some type of nontraditional smoking product. This number is almost twice as high as the student data for smoking traditional cigarettes.

“I think you’re seeing more and more of the vaping in terms of the amount of it in schools have picked up some,” said Mason. “We have changed our discipline policies within our schools dealing with tobacco and with vapes, and we’ve increased the consequences for students for that quite a bit at the middle school and high school levels.”
This ban means that CCPS joins not only the states ban but 18 other states with full school nicotine bans.