The Dell Rapids School District is installing vape sensors, or machines that send silent messages to school resource officers or administrators when vaping chemicals are detected, in middle school and high school bathrooms to help curb the use of vaping products among teens on school property.
Other school districts across southeastern South Dakota are also weighing the idea and trying to address vaping head on as lung-related illnesses connected to vaping nationwide continue to rise.
South Dakota has had at least six reported cases as of Thursday, and there has been an outbreak about 530 cases found in 38 states and six deaths linked to vaping, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Of those cases, 16% of have been children under the age of 18.
