In what has become an epidemic among the nation’s youth, vaping has taken a new form among some high schools in the metroplex. The first vape inspired watch has hit the market featuring a 2mL refillable pods within a watch that shows the date and time.

Yet to be seen by the campus’ Student Resource Officer Glen Hubbard, he believes the trend will follow to other schools.

“I try to send out the new stuff so that people are aware, so the teachers are aware,” Hubbard said. “I think it will still take a regular cartridge so it’s going to be treated the same way as any other.”

Todd Orme, CEO of Waterford Academy, a Richardson-based program for youth struggling with addiction in Richardson, stresses the risks taken by using an e-cigarette.

“The brain is a very, very delicate organ, and kids subject their brains to lots of chemicals,” Orme said in a previous interview with Wingspan. “Where vaping comes into play, based on my experience, is kids are vaping mostly nicotine which, in lieu of smoking cigarettes. What we find is that kids will find ways to get into vape shops, buy their vapes, buy their oil and basically puff away [and] it’s part of their addictive process.”

Students caught using any vaping devices face ISS for the first offense; 2 days in ISS, a citation from the SRO and a drug prevention course for the second. 

But while the vape watch is designed to be hidden in plain sight, Hubbard thinks they will be easy to spot. 

“I don’t think it’s going to be that hard to tell. Just because it does have that lip there,” Hubbard said. “We are just going to be aware like anything else. Technology is always changing so we got to keep up with it.”

However teenagers using or buying any vaping device will have a harder time doing so beginning Sunday when a new Texas state law goes into effect which raises the legal age from 18 to 21 to purchase tobacco products as well as e-cigarettes.

Regardless of the age, school nurse Emily Mikeska warns students of the potential dangers of vaping.

“I think there are different levels of what’s in vaping liquids, and the contents of what’s in these vaping liquids is still unknown, as to what harmful effects they may have,” Mikeska said in a previous interview with Wingspan. “They are advertised as not being as harmful as cigarettes, but I don’t know if we could truly say that.”