School representatives urged support Monday for a legislative proposal to confront what they said is a growing problem of nicotine vaping in schools and among Nebraska youth.
"There's been a steep increase in vaping" in Nebraska schools, Waverly High School principal Dr. Megan Myers said, and it is now growing among students as young as 14.
"Health risks are well-documented and there are school-related consequences," Kyle McGowan told the Legislature's General Affairs Committee in speaking for the Nebraska Council of School Administrators and the Nebraska Association of School Boards.
"We are very concerned," he said.Â
The legislative proposal (LB862), introduced by Sen. Dan Hughes of Venango, would prohibit possession of tobacco, electronic nicotine delivery systems and alternative nicotine products by minors, currently defined in Nebraska law as youths under 19.
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Those products are "highly addictive," Hughes told the committee, and they have created a growing problem in the schools.
The committee also heard testimony related to LB1064, a bill introduced by Sen. Tom Briese of Albion that would raise the legal age for use of tobacco and nicotine products in Nebraska from 19 to 21, matching recent federal legislation.
Myers said legal consequences for use of nicotine products in addition to school discipline could be helpful in stemming the tide of vaping, because some students now view punishment such as school suspension as just "a slap on the wrist."
There is hidden vaping within classrooms now, she said, and in some schools "there are vaping bathrooms."
Some of the identified consequences of vaping are moodiness and laziness, the committee was told. Grades drop and relationships suffer.
Briese told the committee that state law should be made consistent now with the new federal law raising the legal age for use of all tobacco and nicotine products to 21.Â