PUEBLO — As the vaping epidemic continues to grow across the United States, more and more school district are moving forward on banning teen vaping at their schools. On Thursday, the Pueblo School District 60 board says it has taken the first steps in joining that growing list. A first reading has been completed that would add the vaping ban to the district's tobacco free schools policy. If the rule passes, vaping would be banned on all campuses.
We spoke with Dalton Sprouse, Communications Director for the district who told News5 "we are seeing the concern of youth vaping so we wanted to make sure that we strengthened our policies to include vaping products and that's what we've done with this policy here."
The latest numbers from the Centers For Disease Control this week shows 1,888 cases of illness confirmed or tied to vaping in 49 states, and increase of 284 cases from the previous week.
So far, 37 deaths have been reported in 24 states and Washington, D.C. Here in Colorado, we've had 11 reported cases, 9 hospitalizations and one death that is under investigation.
The District 60 School Board is planning on a final vote on the policy in November, and we'll tell you what they decide.
