Long Island School District Suing Juul

THREE VILLAGE, NY — The Three Village Central School District is suing Juul, the troubled e-cigarette and vape manufacturer. The district argues in court documents filed Monday that Juul's marketing of nicotine-infused products to children has not only led to a vaping epidemic across the country, but within the Three Village School District.

The district claimed Juul has caused past, present and ongoing harm to its schools.

"(The district) has been forced to expend significant resources combatting this public nuisance of (Juul's) creation and will need to continue expending such resources as the epidemic shows no signs of abating on its own," the documents read.

Three Village's lawsuit also says school districts have been uniquely and disproportionately affected by Juul.

"Educators are being forced to expend significant resources to combat Juul use by students," said the documents. "Juul use by students during school presents both a danger to students and increases the resources necessary to educate the students who use Juul. It also detracts from educators’ limited time and resources to educate their student population generally."

Schools have taken measures such as installing sensors in bathrooms, removing bathroom doors, and banning USB flash drives, according to the documents.

The district also argues in the documents that nicotine use among young Americans is rising and said Juul has played a major factor in that.

"As a result of Juul's youth-targeted product design and marketing, and years of misstatements and omissions regarding its products, Juul succeeded in addicting a generation of youth to nicotine," the documents said.

The documents reference a Washington Post article that reported an increase of students being suspended for being caught with e-cigarettes.

The lawsuit also says Juul modeled its advertising after that of traditional tobacco, marketing its products towards teens as "trend-setting, stylish and used by the type of people teenagers look up to."

On Sept. 25, Juul declared it was "suspending all broadcast, print and digital product advertising in the U.S.," and that it would not rally against the federal government’s proposed nationwide ban on flavored e-cigarettes, according to the court documents. Kevin Burns, CEO of Juul, stepped down.

However, the lawsuit said Juul's actions came "too late."

"Juul’s deceptive and illegal conduct had already succeeded in addicting a generation of America’s youth to its nicotine products," the documents said.

According to 2018 National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS) data, e-cigarette use increased by 78 percent among high school students between 2017-18, from 11.7 percent to 20.8. E-cigarette use by middle schoolers in the same time frame increased 48 percent, from 3.3 to 4.9 percent.

Nearly 1,100 lung injury cases linked to use of e-cigarette or vaping products have been reported to the CDC as of Oct. 1.

School districts in St. Charles, MO and Olathe, KS, are taking Juul to court as well, according to Newsday.