Tuesday night (August 12, 2021), attorneys who are suing JUUL, which is now controlled by Phillip Morris Company, presented the facts of the case to the Jordan School Board of Education.

According to the most recent Sharp Survey in 2019 done by the State of Utah, 38.6% of 12th graders in SL County report having vaped, while only 13.7% of 12th graders report having smoked. And in the past 30 days, 19.4% of 12th graders in SL County report having vaped, while only 2.9% report having smoked. In other words, vaping is a much bigger problem than smoking, but many adults don’t understand vaping and think it is still just flavored water instead of highly addictive nicotine.

Our Administrators spend a lot of time dealing with the vaping crisis in our schools. We hope to get back those expenses with what we could be rewarded in this suit. The Attorney General of Utah is not taking up this case, so individual school districts can choose to join the suit or not. The Jordan School District joins with Ogden and Provo school districts in joining this suit. Joining the suit will not cost the district anything, but brings a chance or some compensation to the district. The most important reason to join the suit, in my opinion, is to continue to bring awareness to this issue that is causing so much harm to our youth.

November 9, 2023 JUUL Lawsuit Update

Some time ago, the Jordan School Board voted to join a class action lawsuit against JUUL, an electronic cigarette company. "School District v. JUUL Labs, Inc., et. al"

JUUL came online, claiming to be a healthier alternative to cigarettes. The real problem here is they wrapped their dangerous product in candy and bubble gum flavors and purchased ads in Seventeen Magazine, Nick Jr, and Social Media companies that targeted underage users. Over the years, the explosion of underage users has become problematic.

I have watched this problem in our schools for many years. I have seen more and more of our teacher's and administrators' time being taken up by student use at schools. I have talked to several administrators during the height of this problem that said rarely a day went by without dealing with several students with this problem.

The Jordan School District and others across the nation claimed that this illegal campaign focused on our children and became a burden on our schools. Ultimately, Jordan and other school districts prevailed, winning over one billion dollars in the settlement.

The Jordan School Board recently voted to accept our part of the settlement, just shy of 600,000 dollars. In approving the settlement, a motion was made to spend all the settlement money on an ongoing campaign to curb vaping in our schools. Vap Protectors and education campaigns are just a few things we will do with this money. The most important thing is that although we can spend the money on anything, we voted to spend the money on the problem this company brought to our schools.

I recently watched the Netflicks Documentary called. "Big Vape: The Rise and Fall of Juul"

It is an exciting documentary that outlines the history and controversy of JUUL

On a personal note, Nicotine killed my brother and many people that I love. I remember as my brother was taking his final breath, he said, the last thing I ever thought I would die from is Lung Cancer. Many kids like my brother are signing up for an early death with this dangerous product. Nicotine sucks.