Oklahoma School District Installs Vaping Sensors In Bathrooms

An Oklahoma school district is hoping to prevent vaping in its bathrooms by installing new sensors.

The Thomas-Fay-Custer school district installed 16 sensors in the district’s junior and senior high school bathrooms. Two sensors were installed per bathroom.

It’s making a huge impact.

“We needed to take a stance, kind of like what we do with tobacco,” said Rob Royalty, Superintendent of the Thomas-Fay-Custer School District.

The “Halo Smart Sensor” can detect anything from vaping, air quality, chemicals, and sound in the event an altercation takes place in the bathroom.

The Thomas-Fay-Custer School District believes it’s the first in the state with the sensors.

“Students’ safety is super important to us, our board felt like this is something that we could show the community that we are being proactive, instead of just waiting for something to happen,” said Royalty.

When a sensor is triggered, administration will immediately receive a text and e-mail with details on what triggered the sensor.

“There is a lot of information in the news right now about the harmful effects of it (vaping),” said high school principal, Roy Oaks. “I think we need to guide our children, being an administrator, being a father, to you (children) need to make better choices for your health.”

Settings continue to be fine-tuned to the district’s new sensors.

The Thomas-Fay-Custer School District encourages other districts to check it out.

“Anything you can do to make your school safer and prevent any harmful actives to kids, I would recommend that,” said Oaks.

The district said it paid about $1,000 for each sensor. Depending on how things go with the current sensors, the district may purchase more for its elementary bathrooms.