AIBU to expect schools to teach children about vaping and smoking harms?

The authorities allowed his happen. The adults allowed it to happen.

They allowed nicotine suppliers create a new colourful trend, they may as well be mixing nicotine with a packet of haribo jellies.

Vape shops became really profitable. Selling the drug.

What did we expect? Now the school is supposed to deal with a generation of nicotine addicts.

These were purely introduced to get people addicted to nicotine again as the smoking campaign worked so well.

Two steps forward, ten steps back.

I always say it and have experience in NA, the first gateway drug is nicotine, every addict tried nicotine first, people blame cannibas but most cannibas user were addicted to nicotine first or tried it leaving the trace for more.

Teaching about smoking and vaping is part of the statutory PSHE curriculum so it is taught. There is very little that ‘schools ought to teach’ that isn’t covered at least somewhere.

I have taught it. And yes. Lots of children vape - an alarming number but to be honest an hour a year of teaching from their form teacher isn’t going to deter teenagers from doing it it has to come from parents and wider societal pressures and guidance.

50% vaping is incredibly unlikely ime. Perhaps 50% have tried it once, but not 50% regularly vaping.

Naive to think because school says it's bad, kids don't do it.

Of course it is taught, along with every other fucking topic. I suspect they are being a little disingenuous because at least one of them had tried it themselves.

It absolutely 💯 is taught…many times over in every year group OP.

The ‘thing that has gone badly wrong’ is that what’s taught isn’t being backed up at home. Parents are not upholding their part of the job 🤷‍♀️

This ⬆️

I work in a primary school & am a parent to teens - it’s 100% taught in all our local schools! It starts very early & gently in Primary as part of PSHE & is then reinforced, age appropriately, as they move up. By the time they’re in the upper years of Secondary, it’s pretty explicit & is repeated across PSHE & science lessons. I could ask one of our year 3 kids & they’d tell me that smoking & vaping is ‘bad for you’.

Here’s an idea, why don’t you ask your kids’ school in a non confrontational way what is taught on their PSHE curriculum and at what stage.
I suspect it’s rather more than your teens remember or have told you.
Also the thinking that if harms of vapes were covered in a lesson at school, teens wouldn’t do it, is a bit naive. They are not doing it because they haven’t had warnings but because they are young, a bit rebellious, and feel invincible at their age!

Just show your teens this, and it’s only a small example. DD was 14 at the time when she started throwing up huge black clots. We had to measure how much blood was lost daily, and sometimes it was up to 70ml. It’s a long story, but in summary she went to theatre 3 times for investigative procedures. Each time she was asked and asked if she was vaping, and all the times this was denied. Fast forward 5 months, she was at physio for something unrelated. She had to take her blazer off and was reluctant. As she passed it to me I could feel it was heavy, and subsequently found the vape - which was, of course, not hers but one she was “saving for a friend”. Yeah, ok.

Baring in mind I work for the NHS, so I know how precious surgical slots are. Not to mention the time off work I needed, the wasted resources etc so my lord did I come down on her. Turn out, the vape was literally scorching her lungs and the clots were due to the internal bleeding.

She’s not vaped since, and now at 17 she does talks in her old school about what happened to her. She has a large social media following and shares her story on there too. But she’s far from proud of her experience, she realises now how stupid it was, but at 14 she wouldn’t have had any of it.

FFS, this is definitely covered in school. I used to teach primary school and we definitely taught it, smoking pretty much every year from about y3 I think. I just refuse to believe your children haven’t ever been told it’s dangerous OP.

Here's a crazy idea teach your own kid teachers have enough on their plates without having to also be parents

It's really very frustrating.
I do suspect that some people believe that schools have to impart the complete lexicon of human knowledge.
School blaming is a sort of default!

Yes I mean they let it get wildly out of control and advertised in the way that cigarettes were banned years ago?! They should never have allowed all the colourful packaging and fruit smells etc
They really dropped the ball on it.

I wasn't a huge fan of the education my DS received at his secondary school. But the information and education they were given about smoking and drugs was first class.

He is an adult now and this was before vaping had been invented but I assume that would have been covered if it had been a thing at the time.

He would have been about 12 at the time, at a then highly rated state school in Scotland. He and his pals were actually quite taken aback that, despite the knowledge they were given, a percentage of their peers still sneaked off to buy fags. Generally the children who did this were those who had been placed at his school after being excluded from other schools and so presumably had problems in their lives already.

So yes education in schools about the dangers and effects of smoking, vapes and drugs i thiik is vital but it's inevitable it will fall on some deaf ears.

I started smoking in school. I very much knew it was bad from both my parents and school lessons. I still did it. Of course lung cancer didn’t happen to teenagers who only smoked for a short while. But then a short while turned into quite a few years. I stopped smoking when my youthful invincibility disappeared.

Good point.

You are not paying attention OP. Just like your DC.

Because they're allowed to make a choice. My point was "education" changes and one minute, we're taught something is harmful, the next it changes. So, the parents need to tell the children and maybe they have? We all knew smoking was harmful but how many kids did we know that snuck a fag behind the school at lunch? I just don't agree that the school is the solution.

Science teacher here.

Firstly its in the KS3 syllabus so they learn about lungs, alveoli etc... and the effect of smoking. They also learn about pregnancy and smoking and how you are starving your baby of oxygen.

They then study it again at GCSE biology.

And finally its the parents job to explain from a young age why they shouldn't smoke or vape and the effects it has on the lungs.

Vaping isn't in the curriculum yet but we do discuss it.

Also, it is probably around 10% that vape. The only ones that say higher percentages are usually part of that minority group.

Maybe the problem is the teenagers, much like yourself on this thread refuse to listen. You still seem adamant that schools are not already doing this.

WE DO ADDRESS IT IN SCHOOLS !!!!!!!!
Are you listening at all op ?

OP - has it occurred to you that your DC may be lying or wasn't paying attention?

Of course the health risks have been explained to them!!

As to your question why then are so many vaping if the risks have been made clear - if something is banned a lot of kids immediately want to do it! The illicitness is very appealing and kids are not as clever as they like to think they are.

When I was at school smoking was banned but that didn't stop any number behind the bike shed.

This is a typical mumsnet conversation.

Why isn’t XXX covered in schools
teachers: it is, in PHSE/science/ maths
My kids never learnt it, so it must not be covered

This will go round in a circle now.

Check the curriculum on the school website. Then discuss again with your DC to see if it was discussed at school. Maybe they were vaping in the toilets and missed the lesson! Impress upon them that PHSE lessons are important

When do we stop expecting schools to be parents and social moral police and undertake these things at our homes. What if schools taught that vaping was safe? Would you agree because the school said so? When I was growing up, I was taught weed was a gateway drug, addictive and dangerous. Then we are taught that it's fine. Now, it's reversing course again. When do we just accept responsibility for ourselves as a society and teach our children things within the home?

I'm not having a go at you, OP. I'm just suggesting that the school isn't the moral authority, isn't correct in all things, can't be the substitute parent etc.

We need to stop relying so much on the state and having any expectation that they should do anything beyond keeping our children safe, whilst in their custody and control, and making sure they can read, write and do maths so they can find gainful employment at the end of it all.