The Detroit News: Their job is to help Michigan schools sniff out vaping. But dogs like Moose are doing much more.
By: Jennifer Chambers |The Detroit News | October 3, 2024
St. Clair Shores — When it's time to be social, Moose the black Labrador gladly complies, wagging his tail for the scores of hands reaching for his back inside Lakeview High School and then rolling over to expose his belly for a rub.
But when it's time to work, Moose heads for a row of student lockers along the school's hallway. His nose lowers to the three vents at the bottom of each locker, where all sorts of smells lurk, hitting one at a time and quickly moving on. Moose is looking for a specific smell: liquid nicotine and liquid THC.
During a recent demonstration by Zebra K9, the Waterford-based company that trains and owns Moose, his handler, Diana Langlois, walks the 2-year-old lab along the lockers. He sniffs each one and moves to the next until he hits on a live bait. And down Moose sits, signaling he has found the prize he has been trained for.
His reward: a bright yellow tennis ball.
The reward for school officials: a reduction in the number of vapes being found on school premises.
Schools have turned to specialized vape-detection K9 teams to remove vape devices and vape liquids from school grounds. A company provides highly trained dogs capable of detecting liquid nicotine and liquid THC, the primary components in vape products.
School officials said the dogs can detect vapes on students, in backpacks, lockers and restrooms, on school grounds and at events; detect liquid nicotine and liquid THC; act as a visual and word-of-mouth deterrent; and offer social and emotional support when not actively searching.
"A lot of his day is really brightening the students' days," Langlois said. "Some of the students say they come to school to see Moose. He is pretty great with the students, really friendly. Everyone loves him."
Mya Zani, a junior at Lakeview High School, said she welcomes Moose and his position at the school.
"It is so annoying when you like have to go into the bathroom and you like see like vape circles and stuff, and I was just trying to go the bathroom," said Mya, 16.
Eight Michigan school districts are using one of Zebra K9's vape-detection dog or dogs in their schools. Along with Lakeview Public Schools, Mt. Morris Consolidated Schools outside Flint and Van Dyke Public Schools in Warren each use two dogs across their schools. Avondale School District in Auburn Hills, Huron Valley Schools in Highland Township, Williamston Community Schools outside Lansing and St. Ignace Area Schools and Rudyard Area Schools, both in the Upper Peninsula, each use one dog.
Lakeview Superintendent Karl Paulson said he has seen a reduction in THC vapes and nicotine vapes on school premises since starting to use last school year a full-time onsite Zebra K9 drug-detection team at the middle school and high school.
Students caught with liquid vape products face suspension and tickets for violating a St. Clair Shores city ordinance with a $500 fine for tobacco possession. Anyone suspected of dealing vapes to students could face expulsion, Paulson said.
Student referrals issued for nicotine vapes dropped 20%, Paulson said, at both the middle and high schools since the dog was introduced in 2022. Before the dogs were used, Paulson said assistant principals and security would check bathrooms for vape use and other measures. He credited the dogs as the big change.
"I can't believe it is anything else," Paulson said.
Officials with Zebra K9 said their dogs provide schools with a proactive, mobile, visual and word-of-mouth deterrent to identify and reduce the presence of vaping devices on school premises, providing a safer and healthier environment.
Greg Guidice, founder and president and CEO of Zebra K9, said Moose arrives before the students do in the morning and mills about them as they arrive. Once in class, Moose will sweep the lockers and check perimeter doors to make sure they are all locked. Moose can get called by specific teachers for their class to sweep backpacks or to calm a student.
"The social-emotional aspect has really been a surprise for all of the districts," Guidice said. "They like having the dog in the school and knowing it does something to protect them. And they can interact with him. A day doesn't go by where Moose isn't calming a student, escorting a student, going into the special needs classroom."
'Alarming' increase in marijuana use
The prevalence of vaping in schools has become a significant concern for educators and parents. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and a 2023 National Youth Tobacco Survey, e-cigarettes were the most commonly used tobacco product among middle and high school students in the United States.
In 2023, 2.1 million students used e-cigarettes, including 1.56 million high school students and 550,000 middle school students. Among the students reporting current e-cigarette use, 89% used flavored products and 25% used an e-cigarette daily, according to the CDC report.
Paulson said the work is about protecting all students — those who do not want to deal with other students vaping in cramped school bathrooms and those using vapes, who can have health issues.
"Our focus is more about prevention," Paulson said. "You might capture something in a locker. We don't sweep often, but maybe you find something in the parking lot or around a car. It's more about prevention than it is about gotcha."
The cost for the dog's services varies, depending on the number of dogs and handlers and the hours the dog is needed. Zebra K9 would not disclose the amount it charges districts.
Lakeview used a dog in a pilot program in the spring of 2022 and now has a two-year contract with the company, with this school year being its second year. The district uses two dogs, one at its high school and one at Jefferson Middle School. Paulson said it is about $100,000 a year for two dogs and their trainers.
Moose the labrador retriever stops at a locker and sits at attention, notifying his handler of a vape product that was hidden in the locker for a demonstration at Lakeview High School in St. Clair Shores. The districts that hire dogs for vape and marijuana detection also discover they provide a social-emotional service for the schools, said Zebra k9 CEO Greg Guidice. “A day doesn’t go by where Moose isn’t calming a student, escorting a student, or going into the special needs classroom,” Guidice said. Daniel Mears, The Detroit News
In May, Nikolai Vitti, superintendent of Detroit Public Schools Community District, said the district has seen an "alarming" increase in students' use of marijuana-infused products and vapes containing marijuana and a significant increase in drug-related infractions at schools.
Vitti issued a plea to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan and a host of federal, state and local elected leaders to enact immediate policy changes to address the rise of edible marijuana use among underage high school students.
He said since Michigan’s legalization of recreational marijuana for those 21 and older in 2019, day-to-day operations in the district have been significantly disrupted by the use of recreational marijuana products by students.
In late September, the Detroit superintendent told The Detroit News he is not using trained dogs to combat the problem.
"At this point, greater awareness and understanding of the challenges" is the approach, Vitti said.
Detroit City Council member Scott Benson was part of a town hall held last month to address the increase in vape use among teens in Metro Detroit. Benson said he is seeking legislation to make it more painful financially and legally for retailers to sell tobacco products to minors in Detroit.
As part of the Detroit Explorers Program, several teens went undercover inside gas stations and retailers in the spring to purchase tobacco products, including vapes, the councilman said.
"Of the 23 approached and asked, 17 of the 23 sold to youth. Six were shut down," Benson said. "That was a huge wake-up call that that many gas stations and party stores would sell to youth."
Benson said the city has updated its tobacco ordinance to include vape products, and he is working on a proposed ordinance that would provide stricter penalties to those who sell to minors under 21.
A multi-pronged approach
Minou Jones, chair of the Detroit Wayne Oakland Tobacco-Free Coalition, also spoke at the town hall. Jones said while education on the dangers of vaping is one part of the solution, reducing youth access to the highly addictive products must be another.
"Detroit is a tobacco swamp," Jones said. "There is a retailer within walking distance of every resident. We know retailers sell at high rates to youth" — without taking into account young people's access to the products through family and friends.
"The norm is marijuana and vaping are highly accepted," Jones said. "Not like cigarettes. ... When you have flavors being inserted, ... it's more desirable to young kids."
Jones does not advocate suspension for vaping in schools, saying: "That just provides (students) with more time to do what they got kicked out of school for. Schools should foster learning, not enforcement and monitoring."
Vape-sniffing dogs are a great idea as long as they are part of an approach that moves beyond discipline, said Carol Mastroianni, executive director of the Birmingham Bloomfield Community Coalition, which works to reduce youth substance abuse and improve teen mental health and wellness.
Educational materials should be provided to students and parents on vaping and its dangers, Mastroianni said. Talks should include a discussion on substance use as part of a student athlete’s orientation when the codes of conduct are discussed, she added.
She also suggested schools build awareness about vaping and marijuana "because the two go together" and seek alternatives to suspensions, such as a restorative justice approach in which students can understand the harm caused by substances.
"This is where a multi-pronged approach needs to come in because you cannot suspend your way out of an addiction or mental health issue," Mastroianni said. "Research has shown that staying connected to school and accessing support services is vital for long-term well-being and that suspension increases student absenteeism without addressing the root cause of use."
Both the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services and the state Department of Education are working on helping students address the prevalence of vaping by students in and on school grounds.
Health and Human Services department spokeswoman Lynn Sutfin said the department is in the process of developing a Michigan K-12 vaping toolkit that will offer best practices and a guide to
tobacco- and nicotine-free policies. The department will conduct community collaborations across the state to help provide demographic-specific resources for each K-12 district, Sutfin said.
The department is also building educational resources around the growing concern of THC vaping in middle and high schools, she said.
"Master trainings are being developed to increase awareness and knowledge of the dangers of e-cigarettes," Sutfin said in an email. "Trainings also include information about supporting and providing resources to youth and policies that empower youth to make healthy choices and educate on the dangers of e-cigarettes."
Mya Zani, 16, and Kylie Johnson, 17, play with Moose the labrador, who brings smiles to the students when they cross paths in the hallways at Lakeview High School in St. Clair Shores. Moose’s job is to sniff out Vape materials, but he also acts as an emotional support animal. Zani said she welcomes Moose because it is annoying to encounter vaping circles in the bathroom. Daniel Mears, The Detroit News
MDHHS also has a free youth tobacco dependence treatment program called My Life, My Quit program. It includes educational materials designed for teens and was created through focus groups with teens, experts and community members.
Teens can text or call a toll-free number — (855) 891-9989 — dedicated specifically for teens, or they can visit mylifemyquit.com for real-time coaching.
Bob Wheaton, state Department of Education spokesman, said the department "strongly encourages" schools to use alternatives to suspension for violations involving tobacco, e-cigarettes and vaping.
"For specific tobacco/e-cigarette/vaping violations, it is very important to keep the students in school, learning and providing support," guidance from the education department says. "When students are suspended for tobacco-related offenses, they are often relegated to environments that may not support their ability to stop using these products and separates them from their learning time."
jchambers@detroitnews.com