Dear Parent

It is hard to believe another school year is coming to an end.

Can I say a big thank you to all parents and carers for supporting their school communities – without your commitment the education system simply would not work. I am writing to ask for your support on a crucial issue. You may have recently seen my announcement about the new measures we are implementing to address vaping in schools. The prevalence of vapes in our community is a serious issue.

The biggest misunderstanding is they are harmless compared to cigarettes – this is not true – vapes are not safe and they are contributing to a new generation of nicotine dependency. It is a growing concern for school communities, with incidents of students being found in possession of vapes or caught vaping at school becoming a serious disruption to the education of our kids. To strengthen our response and to continue to support principals and teachers to effectively address vaping in our schools, we have now implemented further measures.

In collaboration with the Department of Health and the Minister for Health, new teaching and learning resources now apply for students in Years 5 to 7, which will complement those launched in the original Vaping toolkit. We are also taking strong action in expanding the powers to address vaping, whereby a student can loos good standing under this policy for use or possession of vapes at school.

This means, students caught vaping risk being able to attend school events like balls, graduation, and other extra-curricular activities. We consulted with the Department of Health and several organisations, including the WA Student Council, in the development of these initiatives to make sure our approach is appropriate and meets the needs of students, and we believe a whole school approach is the most impactful way to address this issue.

We are confident these new measures, alongside other initiatives across Government, will help to reduce the impact these dangerous products are having on our community particularly our children and young people.

I encourage all parents to speak with your children about vaping. The facts can be found at https://www.education.wa.edu.au/drug-education.

Thank you again for your support of these measures to ensure the future health and wellbeing of our young people. I hope you all enjoy the summer holidays and have a safe festive season.

Yours sincerely

Dr Tony Buti MLA
MINISTER FOR EDUCATION

View original letter received from Minister for Education, Dr Tony Buti MLA