With the ban on vaping products passed down by the governor Tuesday, one Dennis-Yarmouth High School classroom is already ahead of the game.
Students in Reade Whinnem’s video production class recently produced three public service announcements warning about the dangers of vaping.
The class filmed from underneath a small water tank and then added swirling colors to give the impression of lungs clouding with toxins. Whinnem says the effect gives viewers a clear message. "Whenever I teach kids about PSA’s, I always take them back to what is the greatest PSA of all time, which is: This is your brain. This is your brain on drugs,” Whinnem says, referencing an ad that showed an egg frying in a pan. “It’s so simple, so straightforward, and it makes the point.”
Jheneay Watkins is a senior that helped produced the videos. She says that its release is timely, considering Baker’s ban, but it could go further in ultimately getting students to stop vaping.
Watkins says that students will still get vaping products somehow. Education is what's really needed. "A lot of students really need to see what this does to their body,” says Watkins. “Instead of just the same lecture and same presentation, they need to see visuals, and I think this [video] will help."
Barnstable County Human Services helped the film’s production with a small grant given to the school.
