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Troup High Principal Nikki Watts and Assistant Superintendent of Operations Chip Medders gave a presentation Thursday night to the Troup County School Board regarding vaping in schools and an overview on the implementation of the HALO Smart Sensors for all secondary schools.

In a press release from Halo Smart Sensor, the company states their intended use and long-term benefits are to aid in helping stop the youth vaping epidemic.

“[The Halo Smart Sensor by IPVideo Corporation] gained national attention as the leading vape and THS detector on the market and has been instrumental in helping schools combat the youth vaping epidemic,” the press release stated.

The document gave three ways in which the device can be used to help prevent vaping and COVID. It helps by mitigating the spread of COVID-19, influenza, and other infectious diseases; monitoring occupancy and building air quality and detering/alerting of substance abuse and violence.

Medders said the implementation of the Halo devices began earlier in the school year and the implementation for the rest of them occurred in the last few weeks.

“We started installing those early in the school year Troup High School was one of the first ones,” Medders said. “In the last few weeks, we went ahead and installed the rest of these Halo Devices in the secondary schools.”

Watts said THS is already seeing the results of the implementation in her school despite her students trying to find a way around it.

“It was a bit of a learning curve for us as an administrative staff, but once we got the calibrations correct, we started seeing the results of the implementation,” Watts said.

“Our kids are pretty intuitive, and they pick up on things quickly, especially when they’re trying to figure out ways around safety measures that we have in place. I’ve heard that alarm quite a few times because anytime its touched by a student it blares.”