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KAMAS — South Summit High School in Kamas has taken a big step to stop vaping. They have suspended 14 varsity football players after they were caught vaping on the team bus on the way to a game.
A tip came in about some kids vaping on the bus on the way to games. As the administration looked into the security video, they saw some of it happening.
The principal asked the students on the team to come forward and admit it and most of them did.
“I’ve had 14 players who have been suspended from the football team,” said South Summit principal Wade Woolstenhulme.
Those who did not come forward are off the team.
The suspended players have to complete an education program about vaping before they are allowed back. There are just two more games left in the regular season.
“The ones that came in willingly, they will be able to play in three weeks if we make the playoffs,” said Woolstenhulme.
The school’s JV and freshmen teams had to cancel their games this week in order to bring up JV and freshmen players to fill the holes made after the suspensions, and Woolstenhulme said he’s ok with that.
“It’s not about winning football games, it’s about saving lives. This stuff is killing people now,” he said.
Woolstenhulme said at the beginning of the school year, they had a couple of students hospitalized because of the effects of vaping.
“I feel so strongly about this, that if something happened from now to Monday and we exposed 20 more kids, I would be willing to shut the whole program down,” he said.
He said he has been dealing with vaping at his school for four or five years now but sees more marijuana and THC recently.
“Anything they can melt down into a liquid form, the kids have access,” Woolstenhulme said.
