ABBEVILLE — Upgrades are coming to Vermilion Parish schools to help curb vaping.
The Vermilion Parish School District will place HALO Smart Sensors in bathrooms at each high school in the parish. The sensors will be funded through a Title IV grant from the federal funding program.
“If you looked at...a recent survey of parents across the country, their number one priority was school safety,” District Safety Officer Brooks David said.
The sensors will detect when students use vapes using advanced sensor technology.
He said, “It’s not only nicotine vapes anymore. It’s THC vapes, it’s vapes with fentanyl and meth and different kinds of things in there."
Vapes are not the only thing the sensors can detect.
“It also notifies them that there’s possibly a fight or something going on in there that they need to go in there and break stuff up. And unfortunately, the worst case scenario would be a weapons detection, not noise like a gunshot. We’ll be notified of that also,” he said.
When a sensor is activated, a school administrator will be notified.
David said, “If a student is in a bathroom by his or herself and just so happens to collapse, it will notify our principals and administration, and they can respond there and find that this student is unconscious and be able to get them medical assistance as soon as possible."
The detectors will be installed starting next month.
He says, "They will be ready to go by the beginning of the next school year."
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