“Never to this extent”: Custodian, Teachers, and Students Address Rampant Vaping and Vandalism at Leonia High School
This article was researched over two academic years and contains interviews and photographs from both.
“When I was a kid, it wasn’t really like this,” said Lou DeJesus, a Leonia High School graduate and custodian since 2015. “There were messes on the floor, but it was never to this extent.” Mr. DeJesus works the day shift at Leonia, but has several years of experience working with the night crew, the team responsible for cleaning up the bathrooms. Still, he is called into the bathrooms during the school day at least once per week when messes are reported, which usually entails removing toilet paper trashing the floor or clogging the urinals and sinks.
Vaping serves as a bonding activity between friends. Groups of five to fifteen gather and generate thick clouds of aerosol mist, leaving vape products scattered about. Just as these friend groups vape together, they eat in the bathrooms and vandalize them together too. Bathroom assemblies leave behind potato chip bags, water bottles, soda cans, and lollipop wrappers. Entire rolls of toilet paper are ripped from their dispensers and thrown into the bowl. The smell that accumulates from lingering food waste, human waste, and vape odor abounds.
“That’s common,” Mr. DeJesus reacted to the images above. Pointing out the broken toilet paper dispenser, he added, “That’s a waste. These should have locks on there. Sometimes kids break it. And we don’t have much toilet paper in the school here. We get a certain amount per year, so that’s wasting two weeks right there.” At times, Leonia High School’s yearly toilet paper supply has been exhausted by excessive toilet paper waste: “We run out. We used to borrow from the middle school.” Abuse of toilet paper is “more of a pain” for custodians like Mr. DeJesus because it often causes flooding.
“A lot of kids don’t understand what it is to even clean their room,” said Anthony Penn, a music teacher at Leonia High School, looking at the state of the bathrooms depicted above. “You look at this image, this reminds me of a bunch of spoiled kids that don’t understand how difficult it is to keep their room clean…several bags of chips, muffin wrappers, toilet paper on the floor, hand paper on the floor and in the urinals…these are just people being selfish and foolish and are not aware that a human being, a man or a woman, is going to go into here and pick up the garbage.”
Mr. Penn recounted a recent encounter he had with a vaper. “I was covering a class,” he said, “I had turned my head, and then I turned my head back probably within 2 to 3 seconds, and there was a puff of vape coming out of this person’s mouth…I stared at them with my mouth open for about 30 seconds; their face turned white.” Mr. Penn wrote the student up for the infraction.
“This is common,” Mr. DeJesus repeated, seeing images of disposable vape pens left behind in the bathrooms. “I used to do the boys locker room—I used to work nights—I would find all sorts of vapes inside…back in ‘96, when I graduated, it was cigarettes.”
In these particular photographs, Ace Ultra Minis Gen 3 disposable vape pens from the unlicensed weed shop Ace Ultra Premium were used. Purchases from Ace Ultra Premium cannot be made directly. Instead, they must be contacted through Instagram or Telegram. Ace Ultra Premium is not a licensed cannabis dispensary in the state of New Jersey, nor is it a registered business. Muha Meds is another popular source of cannabis. Muha Meds, like Ace Ultra Premium, is neither a licensed cannabis dispensary nor a registered business in New Jersey. They formerly held a license to sell cannabis products in Michigan, but in 2023, Michigan’s Cannabis Regulatory Agency suspended their license due to safety issues.
In New Jersey, recreational cannabis is only legal for people 21 years and older. Because students are underage, they must obtain their cannabis from the black market, either through informal online platforms or peer networks.
Junior Daniel Hussein recalled drug use in the Leonia School District before high school: “I remember being astonished at everyone vaping the minute we got into middle school. Vaping wasn’t even the worst of it…People went from vaping to drinking and to smoking weed and experimenting with drugs. The fact that people were so quick to ruin their body just to feel cool was honestly the worst part.”
Nationwide, the CDC reports that 1 in 10 high school students use tobacco products, most commonly e-cigarettes. One study in New Jersey, however, found that as many as 25% of adolescents were vaping.
Degradation of Student Life
According to senior Peter Pan, the central wing bathroom is on average crowded with “six to seven people” loitering and vaping. “They bring food in there and play loud music,” Pan said, describing several “parties” he had observed. “You can’t even move, you need to squeeze in.” However, Pan noticed that the bathrooms had “improved a little bit [since] the seniors from last year graduated.”
“The central wing bathroom is worse,” said an anonymous junior who shared her perspective on the girls’ bathrooms. “Yesterday, I just saw feminine products, like pads and tampons, on the walls—they wet it and throw it at the wall.”
“Throughout the whole day,” she continued, “it’s packed with females smoking and doing drugs.” How many? “Seven to ten.” Vapers often gather around the sink, distributing “smoking devices like their cards and their vapes,” which renders the bathroom unusable. “If I go in that bathroom and it’s packed with people, I won’t use it,” she explained. The student recognized Lava Plus and Muha Meds as the most common brands.
However, not all students are bothered by the vaping at Leonia High School. One junior expressed indifference, stating, “I mean, like me personally, I don’t vape—why am I gonna prevent others from doing it?” They mentioned that students vaping in the bathrooms have been considerate towards others present in the stalls—that some have asked if it was alright if they vaped because they didn’t want anyone to feel uncomfortable.
Last year, fire alarms sounded numerous times unexpectedly, including during finals week. There are unconfirmed reports that vaping triggered the alarms on multiple occasions.
Minga: The Newest Weapon in the Administration’s War on Bathroom Misconduct
For several years, Leonia High School’s administration directed teachers and faculty, including the former vice-principal, Mark Sernatinger, to intermittently walk into the bathrooms to evict vapers. More recently, the administration revived anti-vaping efforts with the implementation of Minga, a hall pass software designed to limit the abuse of the bathrooms and other school facilities.
Minga claims to “reduce bathroom vaping and vandalism by up to 85%,” and to “reduce tardies by 50% in 8 weeks.” Using a digital points and rewards system, Minga’s self-described “gamified approach” seeks to create “a powerful, self-reinforcing feedback loop that continually encourages positive behavior.” Though the administration has embraced the promotional narrative, Minga’s promise to streamline respect and cooperation goes unfulfilled at Leonia High School.
One student, who has been vaping for “four years, since freshman year,” spoke on the condition of anonymity. They confirmed that the administration’s undertakings against vaping during this time frame have been ineffective, stating that they vape once a day and have never been caught, “cause they can’t supervise the bathrooms, they can’t check.” When asked if their vaping habits have been at all affected by Minga, they responded with a simple “No.”
“We do not use any digital tools like Minga to monitor students,” reported one teacher who recently left Leonia High School, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “We aren’t strict about teachers writing a pass when sending a student to a destination.” Despite comparatively relaxed measures, they commented that the description of Leonia High School’s bathrooms affirmed by Mr. DeJesus “does not match…the state of the bathrooms at my school,” crediting the cleanliness of their current private school’s bathrooms to a “healthy level of respect” between students and teachers, as well as the efforts of their custodial staff.
A number of attempts to interview Mr. Kalender fell through. However, in response to the issues brought forth by students, Mr. Kalender has released this statement from the administration:
“Leonia High School takes an active and positive approach regarding all student behavior. From time to time, we need to address poor choices by our students. Those choices, however, are rare amongst our students. It would be a mistake to paint all of our student body with a broad brush. We are proud of the hundreds of students who arrive every day prepared and ready to learn. We will remain vigilant and use our current resources to address these issues. It is important to note however that no amount of supervision will eliminate negative behavior and we encourage our students and their families to have direct and honest conversations regarding personal choice. I encourage students to speak up about any issues they observe and to treat shared spaces with respect. Together, we can restore a positive and safe environment for everyone at LHS.”
An Enduring Culture of Destruction?
Bathroom misconduct, including drug use and vandalism, present ongoing challenges for Leonia High School’s environment and culture. Evidence of six different brands of vape pens and regular property damage points to a lack of integrity among students.
As the specifics behind the administration’s “active and positive approach” remain undefined, it is unclear if incoming freshmen will find these issues resolved as the school moves forward.
