Students hide vapes in underwear, toilet roll holders: S'pore schools grapple with vaping scourge

Straits Times

26-07-2025

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Teachers both in primary and secondary schools told ST they are seeing more students sneaking around with vapes.
SINGAPORE - During the June holidays, primary school teacher Wong (not her real name) saw one of her Primary 5 boys vaping openly while cycling near their school.
'It was very disturbing,' she said.
Since the start of 2025, her school has caught about five pupils – mostly from the upper primary levels – with e-vaporisers. One pupil has been caught vaping in school so far.
Some children this young are getting their hands on the devices from channels such as Telegram, Ms Wong said, while others obtain them from their siblings in secondary school.
Teachers both in primary and secondary schools told The Straits Times they are seeing more students sneaking around with vapes – which can be dissembled and easily concealed – on school grounds.
Vaping is harder to detect than smoking, which has more telltale signs, they added.
The problem has become more prevalent since 2021, the teachers said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
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Ms Wong said her school has planned and conducted training sessions for staff on how to handle students caught vaping.
'A lot of teachers are unaware to what extent this is happening, so we even have to show them samples of how these (vapes) might look, as some are very harmless looking,' she said.
In 2024,
there were 2,000 cases of students – including those from institutes of higher learning – reported for possessing or using e-vaporisers. This is up from 800 cases in 2022, and 900 cases in 2023.
The numbers had risen due to a ramp-up of enforcement efforts by the Health Sciences Authority (HSA), which is the enforcement agency for vaping-related offences, and the Ministry of Education (MOE).
But teachers said more cases probably go undetected as teenagers are finding ways to vape more discreetly or to share the devices with friends by passing them around.
An MOE spokeswoman said schools have stepped up education and enforcement efforts, but challenges remain 'due to students having the perception that vaping is harmless and trendy, as well as e-vaporisers being appealing with its novel flavours, ease of use and convenient access'.
Since 2023, the ministry has been working with the Health Promotion Board (HPB) and HSA to issue joint advisories to parents on vaping every semester.
The advisories emphasise the illegality and harmful health effects of vaping, and offer tips on how to talk to children suspected of vaping.
Teachers said the situation improved in 2024, after students caught vaping could be handed fines.
Since March 2024, first-time offenders in schools and institutes of higher learning caught buying, using or possessing e-vaporisers can be fined up to $2,000 after being referred to HSA.
Before this, teachers would usually confiscate the vapes from students and either pass them to their parents or to HSA.
One teacher said it was left to the individual schools to determine disciplinary measures.
MOE said these measures included suspension or caning for boys. Parents will be informed when students are caught using or in possession of vapes, which will be confiscated.
Schools report offenders to HSA and a fine could be issued. HPB also provides support to students caught vaping through QuitLine, a tele-counselling service, and onsite counselling by Student Health Advisors at some schools.
A secondary school teacher who sits on her school's discipline committee said one challenge was dealing with parents who pushed back against schools' penalties.
'Many parents tried to retaliate or negotiate if we wanted to suspend their kids for even a day,' she said.
This resistance has dwindled since the fines kicked in, although the teacher said that she has had 'recalcitrant students who were fined $1,200, or even more'.
Her school handles vaping cases once every two weeks.
The teacher had also been taken aback by one parent's reaction in 2023 after informing them that their child was caught vaping, and would face school punishment.
'If (the authorities) didn't say anything, then why does the school want to cane my child?' the parent had asked.
'Vaping is better than smoking. Besides, children are just curious,' she recounted them saying.
Harder to detect vaping
Another teacher said she was shocked to learn that vapes could come in different shapes, sizes, and flavours.
'They look like pens, thumb drives, barrels… I wouldn't have known otherwise if the school hadn't prepared me,' she said, referring to slides prepared by the school's head of discipline, who saw the need to get teachers up to speed on vaping devices.
A secondary school teacher who has been in the service for more than 25 years said that unlike vaping, smoking was much easier to detect because of its more obvious signs.
These include lingering nicotine smells on fingertips and uniforms, and suspicions that are easily confirmed with a handheld monitor, designed to detect increased levels of carbon monoxide after smoking, through a breath test.
'If they return to class after a long toilet break smelling like a garden, that's a sure sign that they used perfume to mask the cigarette smell. When they vape however, they leave no clues,' he said.
He added that cigarettes, lighters and matches are easy to spot and harder to conceal during spot checks.
In comparison, vapes are harder to identify when disassembled because they come in so many forms.
Another teacher pointed out that students sometimes hide vape components in their undergarments, knowing teachers cannot conduct thorough body searches.
Students are also becoming more creative in how they share and hide their devices.
'One time, we realised the students were hiding the vape devices in the toilet roll holders early in the morning. And they had a system or timetable to share vapes during school hours,' said a teacher, who caught eight repeat student offenders in 2024.
Tackling the scourge
The recent rise in vaping among young people and the introduction of Kpods – e-vaporisers laced with etomidate, an anaesthetic – has prompted government agencies to take stronger actions to deal with the scourge.
Between January 2024 and March 2025, HSA seized more than $41 million worth of e-vaporisers and their related components.
The authorities are working to list etomidate, which is being abused via e-vaporisers, under the Misuse of Drugs Act,
Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said on July 20 .
When asked then about the situation in schools, Mr Ong said the authorities had not detected any etomidate in the vapes seized from schools a few months ago.
But in its latest exercise, one in three vapes seized from the public here was found to contain etomidate, he noted. 'So I will not assume that etomidate has not made their way to schools.'
MOE said parents play an important role in vaping and drug prevention. Parents may call HPB's QuitLine on 1800 438 2000 for help, and any disclosures made during the programme are kept confidential and will not be reported to other authorities.
May (not her real name) resorted to placing her 13-year-old daughter in a residential girls' home in 2025 after her teen refused to stop vaping.
The 55-year-old widow said that her daughter picked up the habit while in Secondary 1 in 2024, at a girls' school. None of her teachers knew about it, even though her daughter had up to seven e-vaporisers in her possession at one time.
'She told me that some of her teachers are very blur. They don't know how to find the vapes if students keep them in their pockets,' said May, who works in social services.
'She was sleeping in class, not paying attention, not handing in assignments. They informed me about this change in her behaviour only much later, during a parent-teacher meeting in October,' she said, wishing that teachers had picked up on signs of her daughter's declining performance in class and connected it to possible vape use.
Acknowledging that teachers are stretched thin dealing with vaping and many other responsibilities, she said: 'The schools and ministry need to come up with something together. There must be something they can do.'