A mother has told of her anger after school bans childs E-cig
The 14 year old boy needed his e-cig to kick his 10 a day habit
14 year old Mason had his electronic cigarette taken away after staff found him ‘vaping’ at school.
His mother Sue, said Mason had started smoking when he was 12 following the death of his father. The family found out last year that Mason smoked and had trying to help him quit ever since.
She said nicotine replacement therapy such as patches, gum and inhalators had not helped. Mason’s older brother bought him an e-cigarette at the start of the summer holidays which seemed to help him finally started to cut down.
His mother spoke to teachers at the school, Kearsley Academy in Radcliffe, Greater Manchester, but said they refused to back down and allow him to use the device on school grounds – even if he promised not to do so in view of younger children.
She continued to say ”He came home from school in a terrible state, because he needed nicotine. We have tried to wean him off the e-cigarettes as well, but it is helping. I went into school and explained the situation but was told it is against the school policy. If it helps to prevent people from developing cancer at a later stage, I think it should be allowed.”
Mason is now back to smoking regular cigarettes despite his e-cig being returned to him.
Mason said: “It is really irritating because they shout at me when I have got a cigarette and tell me to stop and then when I try to quit, they tell me to stop doing that as well. It is really hard and I don’t know what to do next.”
School headteacher Suzanne Pountain said staff had a “duty of care” to students to uphold Kearsley being a non-smoking school.
She went on to say ”As a healthy school we encourage students to lead healthy lifestyles and to make healthy choices. We offer students access to the school nurse and if necessary pathways such as the smoke cessation programme, if this is needed. We will continue to work with and support Mason within the guidelines of our policy. For the safeguarding of all our students, smoking, including the use of any nicotine inhalation devices are not allowed.”
While Public Health England recently announced that ‘vaping’ was 95 per cent safer than smoking normal cigarettes, there have been concerns over inconsistencies in quality and potential unforseen harm to health.
