At Monte Vista the new phenomenon is the hookah pen. Many students use them at school, thinking that it is allowed, however admin is making students aware that hookah pens are strictly forbidden on school grounds.

Hookah pens may seem like an unfamiliar name to some, but they are actually commonly used among high schoolers.

    Hookah pens, have become a sensation across the country and especially at Monte Vista.

    Hookah pens are cigarette shaped devices that contain a vaporizer along with a button that causes the vaporization of the product in the pen. These pens can be filled with drug based liquids, such as tobacco and nicotine, or flavored water.

    These “pens” were originally designed as electronic cigarettes, or “e-cigarettes,” to help people that were trying to quit smoking real cigarettes, hence the availability of nicotine based liquids that can be put into these devices. Like normal cigarettes, one has to be at least 18-years-old in order to purchase nicotine based products.

    Despite their original purpose, many teenagers use flavored water in them for pure enjoyment and not to stop an already existing addiction. Besides using the pens recreationally in their free time, many students use their hookah pens at school.

    Students may do this because hookah pens are electronic and the use of them is not technically considered smoking and therefore they are exempt from the “No Smoking” rule.

    Hookah pens have an incognito mode that makes the smoke that the hookah pen generates clear and also turns off all the lights that the hookah pen usually displays when being used in it’s regular mode. This mode allows students to use hookah pens in class without getting caught.

“I have witnessed students using them in my classes because there’s an incognito mode, so I think that teachers need to become more aware about that.”

    This may come as a shock to hookah pen users who consider them completely harmless.      Although many students use hookah pens, many other students are confused by the purpose of these devices. One student says the uses of hookah pens among their friends “is too common.”

    “It has just become a custom in high school now,” says the same student when asked why they thought it was so popular. “Everyone believes it looks cool and there aren’t any negative effects because it is vapor.”

    The same student agreed with the new policy banning the use of hookah pens on campus and said, “I come to school to focus on my education and that is how it should be for the majority of people. Do not bring your habit to school..”

    Many doctors are also worried that the use of e-cigarettes and hookah pens may be a “gateway” to the use of real cigarettes by adults and teens alike. The city of Richmond and the University of California are among many that have already started to ban the use of e-cigarettes and hookah pens in public.