Monday night the Tishomingo County School Board approved a tougher district tobacco policy to come down hard on students who are vaping at school. Anecdotally, a huge majority of students, even in junior high, are doing this, even on campus and in classes.
One high school student said, “I would say 80% of kids are vaping on campus, and off.”
Teachers are also vaping, according to reports.
District and campus officials are working to combat this dangerous habit on school property by strengthening the penalties. Under a previous policy a first offense earned 2 days of in-school detention, and under the new stronger policy, they get 5 days of in-school detention and parents are notified, and penalties increase from there.
Interviews with students indicate there is no mass anti-vaping education being done at the secondary school level, but if a student is caught vaping, they are provided with a printout telling about the risks of vaping.
The board discussed the daycare on the Tishomingo County High School campus. For years, the daycare facility has been leased to a private business, and serves dozens of community children and their parents. The current operator’s lease is up and a potential new owner is interested in taking over, according to discussion. Board members weighed in on insurance and safety issues, but in the end, the need for quality child care in the county ruled the day and the board voted to continue leasing the building as a childcare facility.
The District proposed a policy allowing school employees the right to have their child(ren) attend school where they work, regardless of their residence. This benefits teachers who must arrive at school early for certain duties and cannot leave their children home alone for the bus, or do not have time to drive across the county to another school campus. The board voted to approve this for all county school employees.
Also, they voted to approve the company Gatekeeper to provide fifteen new cameras for buses in the amount of $23,613.25. Officials said these cameras will have the latest technology, can be angled in any direction, with the highest HD quality. This will be a great asset for the shuttle buses to enforce good behavior, and so drivers can focus on safe driving.
Related to previous actions, the board discussion included that three 8th grade athletes would be “playing up” on varsity teams, a boy at Belmont (basketball), a girl at TCHS (basketball), and another girl on TC varsity softball.
The next scheduled board meeting is Monday, June 12 at 6:30 p.m. at the District Office on Paul Edmondson Drive in Iuka.