KMES PTA hosts parents awareness night

In the last couple of years Kasson-Mantorville School Resource Officer Jesse Kasel hasn’t had to worry about kids being caught with cigarettes or other traditional tobacco products.
But one thing he has to worry about now is a new trend among teens across the state and country, and that is the use of e-cigarettes and vaping.
That’s why last week the Kasson Mantorville Elementary School PTA sponsored a parent's awareness night on the topic of vaping and e-cigaerets.
Kasel explained that earlier this year the pta had approached him about doing a parents awareness night on the topic and knowing that it’s something that is becoming more and more popular among teens he decided to assemble a team to give the presentation.
Kasel explained that although vaping and e-cigarettes are marketed as something that is less dangerous than traditional tobacco, the reality is that they are still dangerous and because of that they face the same problems as they did when they tried to prevent kids from lighting up cigarettes.
“It’s not a new problem it just looks different and is in a different form,” Kasel said.
Unlike traditional tobacco products though, because vaping is so new it creates a challenge for parents and educators, because they don’t know what to look for.
That’s why educating parents and teachers is so important Kasel said.
“It’s important to teach parents what to look for,” Kasel said. “Unless you have parents on board we can’t accomplish much,” he added.
Kasel said that like what happened with traditional tobacco products, the most important thing is for the culture to change and educating people about the real effects of vaping especially at a young age.
“Education and changing the culture around it is the important thing,” Kasel explained.