MANASSAS, Va. (DC Information Now) — Shortly after Prince William County Colleges (PWCS) introduced it was anticipating to obtain cash as a part of a settlement in a category motion lawsuit towards the partial homeowners of Juul Labs, Inc., it shared new information that signifies its drawback with teenage vaping has solely gotten worse.

In a presentation to the college board late final month, PWCS revealed that there have been 639 e-cigarette violations through the 2022-23 faculty 12 months, in comparison with 303 within the 2018-19 faculty 12 months.

Superintendent LaTanya McDade mentioned the district has companions from exterior the training neighborhood serving to to curb the development, however mentioned “extra is required, particularly for a faculty system this dimension.”

PWCS will not be the one district in line to obtain cash from the settlement — Loudoun and Fairfax Counties, in addition to Prince George’s County, Md., have been all aside of the lawsuit.

Fairfax County Public Colleges mentioned in an announcement it plans to make use of the cash to “help our college students’ well being and wellbeing.”

Fairfax County School Board Chair Elaine Tholen referred to the success of substance abuse prevention specialists (SAPS) as methods the district is at present working to deal with vaping.

The annual youth survey Fairfax County conducts — by which eighth, tenth and twelfth grade college students reply questions anonymously — exhibits that whereas 15.1% of these surveyed “vaped within the final month” in 2019, simply 5.4% mentioned they did in the newest 2022 survey.

Fairfax County Public Colleges at present has SAPS in every of their excessive faculties, in keeping with the district’s web site.

Chrissy Fauls, who’s a member of the PWCS Secure Colleges Advisory Committee, advised the board she desires to see extra SAPS of their faculties.

“Prevention on this county has at all times been on the again burner,” she mentioned.

Loudoun County and Fairfax County are additionally piloting applications for vape detectors in bogs.