Knox County Schools, with 58,000-plus students and 88 schools, became the latest and biggest school system in Tennessee to join a lawsuit against JUUL labs, the world’s largest manufacturer of vaping products. The districts are seeking to recover the costs of current and future prevention programs, counseling, and treatment for addicted students.
The lawsuit asserts that the company fraudulently and intentionally marketed to children through social media, online advertising, and children’s television networks. Attorneys contend JUUL marketed candy- and fruit-flavored vapes, or pods, to appeal to young people, and vaping products were sold online, making it easier to avoid legal age requirements.
“Tennessee students were misled when JUUL said vaping was not harmful, because we now know vaping products actually can have 10 times the nicotine of a cigarette,” said attorney Chris McCarty of Lewis Thomason law firm, which is the Tennessee counsel on the lawsuit. “School systems suffer costs of prevention programs and counseling when students become addicted to e-cigarettes.”
William Shinoff, an attorney with the Frantz Law Group in California and counsel on the national lawsuit against JUUL, said the potential benefits for school districts participating in the lawsuit include:
- Compensation so that districts are not forced to draw from general funds for prevention and treatment programs.
- Funding for education programs to warn about the harmful health effects of vaping.
- Additional staffing to prevent vaping on school grounds.
- Counselors to handle social and emotional issues that result from nicotine addiction.
- Placement of vaping detectors in bathrooms.
Funding from school districts is not required to join the lawsuit, and attorneys are working on a contingency basis. The lawsuit also seeks intervention to ban the sale of the flavor pods and stop the intentional marketing of the product to children.
Shinoff cited a U.S. Surgeon General advisory on e-cigarette use among youth: “JUUL e-cigarettes have a high level of nicotine, and nicotine use during adolescence can harm the developing brain and impact learning, memory and attention. To protect our children and students, this is an issue that needs to be stopped in its tracks, and school boards are on the front lines of the battle.”
Tennessee school systems that have joined the lawsuit so far include Bledsoe County, Bristol City, Cannon County, Chester County, Claiborne County, Cumberland County, Elizabethton City, Etowah City, Greeneville City, Greene County, Humphreys County, Knox County, Lincoln County, Millington Municipal, Oneida Special School District, Putnam County, Roane County, Sullivan County, and Warren County.
