Fr BOC Hears First Read of New Vaping Ordinance

Franklin County has formally introduced a new vaping ordinance.

Commissioners heard the first reading of the new ordinance introduced by Commission Chair Jason Macomson.

Macomson said the goal of the new local ordinance is to educate young people and deter them from vaping.

“We were recently contacted by school officials about the problem of vaping by students at the high school,” he began. “And in consultation with those officials, our Magistrate, and our attorney, State law allows the Board of Commissioners to pass a local ordinance, which would allow the school resource officer discretion to issue warnings before they charge students under the local ordinance or state law as well providing several different options for punishments. And this ordinance would update our current ordinance. If I’m correct we really don’t have anything about vaping because that wasn’t a thing when that was written. So, this new ordinance would conform to state law and at the same time give school officials more flexibility when dealing with what has become a serious issue.”

At their January work session, Commissioners discussed the goal of the vaping ordinance with County Magistrate Judge Cody Grizzle.

Grizzle suggested giving students a citation, which would be dealt with in Magistrate Court within a 30-60 day time frame.

As for penalties, he recommended community service or attending classes on the dangers of vaping.

“The only thing I’d like to do is I’d like to have the same maximum with a first offense being just community service work,” he told the Board. “So what would happen in the process would be, when we say community service work, they would go to a class first. A school resource officer or any officer would be able to write them a citation. What we would be offering would be like a diversion program.”

Grizzle said the problem is coming up with penalties if the student refuses to go to the diversion class.

Commissioners plan to hear the second reading and vote to pass the vaping ordinance at their March meeting.