These MS Coast schools will get money from massive Juul settlement. How will it be spent?

Two Mississippi Coast school districts will collect thousands of dollars from e-cigarette maker Juul this year after a federal judge approved a settlement between the company and educators across the country.

Hancock County Schools will use the money to install vape detectors inside their high school and middle school campuses in Kiln, said Melissa Saucier, director of public relations for the district. The sensors should be installed by July or August in an effort to end vaping problems that have alarmed administrators and parents in recent years.

“Vaping has been a big issue everywhere,” Saucier said. “It’s really easy to get your hands on them.”

Hancock County Schools were awarded $62,004 and will likely end up with about $40,000 after attorney’s fees and court costs, Saucier told the Sun Herald on Wednesday.

The Pass Christian School District is also set to collect $30,933, minus fees, as early as September after Superintendent Carla J. Evers signed a settlement agreement this spring.

Pass Christian High School installed vape detectors in school bathrooms last summer. Evers said the district will use the money to recoup what they already spend on anti-vaping measures in Pass schools.

Juul lawsuits settled across the US

The agreements are part of a $255 million settlement approved by a federal judge in San Francisco this year. That decision awarded money to thousands of school districts across the U.S. after they argued Juul marketed deceptively and harmed students.

Juul and other manufacturers like it face many similar lawsuits. In April, Juul settled a case involving six states and the District of Columbia for $462 million. Days later, Juul and tobacco company Altria settled a case with Minnesota for $60.5 million.

The sale and distribution of nicotine products is illegal for anyone under 21 in Mississippi and Coast schools have long warned of the threat vapes and e-cigarettes pose for students.

In 2022, then-Hancock County School District Superintendent Teresa Merwin released a video warning about the dangers of illegal vaping and pleading with parents to educate their kids.

“When you take a puff of a vape handed to you, you have no idea what you’re getting,” Merwin said in the video. She said the district witnessed vaping in classrooms, bathrooms and buses – even elementary schools. Some students in Hancock County schools fell ill last year after vaping THC and other synthetic chemicals, prompting schools to call medical services.

Final approvals for the settlements are expected this summer. The districts could receive $2,500 to $5,000 more if the court decides to award a bonus settlement.

Saucier said the vaping issue, most often seen at the middle and high school, stems from peer pressure at Hancock County schools.

“It’s not a massive, widespread problem,” she said. “But it is a problem.”