SPOKANE, Wash. — The Spokane Public Schools (SPS) Board of Trustees will vote to join the Washington State school vaping litigation.
The vaping litigation is part of more than 5,000 lawsuits against Juul labs. If approved, SPS could receive about $1 million after a settlement.
The lawsuits argue Juul labs intentionally marketed its vaping products to teens and deceived customers about how addictive vaping is. Lawsuits first began in 2019 when people who used Juul started to get sick and found the company was promoting nicotine use.
Throughout the last year, the number of e-cigarette lawsuits has been growing as more teens are using them. Back in December, Juul agreed to settle the cases for an undisclosed amount. No trials in this litigation have been scheduled yet.
In a statement from SPS, they said "Spokane Public Schools welcomed the opportunity to participate in this lawsuit as one way to combat the negative impact vaping has caused in our school communities. We want to do as much as possible to prevent addiction, provide a sense of safety for students, and minimize disruption to the school day."
To date, SPS spent more than $100,000 on vape detection technology, which would be reimbursed by settlement funds.
Students looking for help confronting addiction are invited to speak to their school counselor or trusted teacher.
DOWNLOAD THE KREM SMARTPHONE APP
DOWNLOAD FOR IPHONE HERE | DOWNLOAD FOR ANDROID HERE
HOW TO ADD THE KREM+ APP TO YOUR STREAMING DEVICE
ROKU: add the channel from the ROKU store or by searching for KREM in the Channel Store.
Fire TV: search for "KREM" to find the free app to add to your account. Another option for Fire TV is to have the app delivered directly to your Fire TV through Amazon.
To report a typo or grammatical error, please email webspokane@krem.com.