A school in Den Helder in Noord-Holland has banned smoking and vaping unless pupils have written permission from their parents and wear a high visibility yellow vest while doing it.

Just nine parents at the 1,300-pupil Lyceum aan Zee school said their children could vape or smoke during breaks.

“The measure is meant to cause a bit of friction,” school director Hielke ter Veld told the Telegraaf. “We wanted to do something to engage parents and children in a conversation. We want to involve the parents in school policy,” she said.

Ter Veld said parents often don’t know their children smoke or vape, or are afraid to tell their children no.

“It’s one of the things that used to be part of the parents’ responsibilities but are now being left to the school,” school board chairman Hans van Beekum told the paper. “And the image of all those kids vaping in front of the school was horrible. We needed to do something,” he said.

The nine children who did get their parents’ permission, which was followed up by a phone call, is an “easy to monitor group”, Ter Veld said. “We are under no illusion that they are the only ones who are vaping.”

Some parents objected to the yellow vest for restricting smokers’ and vapers’ movements and even made WW II comparisons but, Ter Veld said, the vests are simply meant to identify those who can smoke from the rest of the pupils.

The first few days of the new regime have seen few pupils put on the vest and the measure has not given rise to the expected heated discussions, Ter Veld said.

Fifth-year pupil Tanja said she found it “a bit shocking” to find herself alone. “My friends used to come outside with me if I wanted to vape. But they can’t now,” she said. She also said she would not cut down on her vaping because of the measure. Pupil Brandon skipped his break-time vape, saying “no way I’m wearing the vest”.

Stop smoking

“Most pupils won’t want to ask permission from their parents and wear the vest. They will smoke less and that will hopefully become part of the school culture. If we only get a few pupils to stop smoking then it’s worth it,” Ter Veld said.

Recent research has shown that many of the vapes used by teenagers contain harmful chemicals including too much nicotine and formaldehyde.