Using Sensors to Stop Student Vaping in School

This user story highlights how Senoptic’s IoT-driven solution can help schools achieve their behaviour-driven strategic goals by eliminating vaping among students. Senoptic enables schools to monitor and detect vaping activities in real-time by integrating IoT sensors with existing surveillance systems. Our innovative technology provides actionable insights that empower school administrators and staff to address this issue proactively, fostering a healthier school environment, promoting student well-being, and enhancing overall academic performance.

Behaviour-driven Strategic Goals

• Eliminate vaping on school grounds: Detect and stop vaping incidents in real-time, ensuring a healthier environment and enforcing school policies effectively.
• Promote student health: Reducing vaping incidents helps protect students from associated health risks and creates a safer, more supportive school environment.
• Improve school discipline and reputation: Consistently enforcing anti-vaping rules leads to fewer behavioural issues, enhancing the school’s reputation for maintaining high standards of student behaviour and well-being.

Target Behaviour

Detecting and eliminating student vaping in unauthorised areas, such as bathrooms and secluded parts of the school. Vaping is a growing issue in schools, posing health risks and leading to disciplinary problems.

Current Process

School staff and security personnel rely on visual checks and occasional student reports to identify vaping incidents. Since vaping often takes place in hidden areas like bathrooms, it is difficult for staff to monitor effectively, leading to delayed responses and challenges in enforcing school policies. CCTV footage is available but not typically monitored in real-time for vaping-specific incidents.

"Staff conduct routine checks and rely on reports to catch students vaping, often after the incident has already occurred."

Future Process with Senoptic

By integrating IoT vaping sensors with the school’s existing CCTV system, Senoptic’s AI-powered solution enables real-time detection of vaping incidents. IoT sensors in high-risk areas (e.g., bathrooms, stairwells) detect vaping chemicals and immediately alert staff. The system links sensor data to the CCTV network, pinpointing the exact location and time of the incident, allowing security personnel or staff to intervene quickly. This proactive approach eliminates vaping and discourages repeat offences through consistent enforcement.

A vaping sensor in a school bathroom detects the presence of vaping chemicals, immediately triggering an alert to the school’s security system. The AI-powered system cross-references the alert with the CCTV footage, identifying the students in the area at the time. Within moments, staff are alerted and can intervene before the behaviour continues. As a result, fewer students attempt to vape on school premises, knowing the system is in place.

• "IoT vaping sensors and CCTV integration provide real-time detection, allowing immediate intervention and preventing ongoing vaping incidents."

Outcomes

• Real-time detection: IoT sensors immediately detect vaping chemicals and trigger real-time alerts, allowing staff to respond swiftly before the behaviour continues or escalates.
• Quick and targeted intervention: The system’s integration with CCTV allows staff to pinpoint the location and identity of students involved, leading to faster and more accurate disciplinary actions.
• Reduction in vaping incidents: As students become aware of the real-time detection capabilities, vaping incidents decrease, creating a healthier, more compliant student body.
• Improved student safety and wellbeing: Vaping is a known health hazard, especially for adolescents. Eliminating it from school environments promotes long-term student health.
• Consistent policy enforcement: By catching incidents in real-time, the school can maintain a zero-tolerance policy toward vaping, leading to more consistent discipline and compliance.

Who Benefits?

Teachers and School Staff: Benefit from more efficient and proactive discipline management, reducing the need for constant monitoring and handling fewer vaping incidents after the fact.

Parents: Appreciate knowing that their children are in a safer, healthier environment where harmful behaviours like vaping are being actively monitored and prevented.

School Leadership (SLT): Gains a tool for upholding school policies and ensuring student health and safety, leading to improved school performance and reputation.

Students: While initially, it may seem restrictive, the long-term benefit is a healthier school environment where peer pressure to engage in harmful behaviours like vaping is reduced.

Wider School Impact

Healthier school environment: Eliminating vaping reduces exposure to nicotine and other harmful substances, fostering a healthier atmosphere that supports student well-being and academic performance.

Enhanced school reputation: A school that actively takes steps to prevent health risks like vaping becomes more attractive to parents and students alike, improving its standing within the community.

More efficient resource use: With real-time detection and intervention, staff can focus on other important areas of school operations instead of constantly chasing vaping incidents after they happen.

Deterrence effect: The presence of a real-time detection system creates a strong deterrent, reducing the likelihood of students attempting to vape in the first place.

With Senoptic’s AI-driven solution, schools can effectively eliminate vaping by combining IoT sensor technology with real-time CCTV integration, ensuring a safer, healthier, and more disciplined environment for all students.

Schedule a consultation now and speak with a Senoptic Education specialist to learn how Senoptic can help you unlock the full potential of your behaviour data.