Levy County School Board Attorney David Delaney is researching whether the board should join a proposed lawsuit against e-cigarette maker JUUL.
By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter
Levy County School Board Attorney David Delaney has been given permission to investigate whether the board should participate in a proposed lawsuit aimed at e-cigarette manufacturer JUUL.
Delaney received a Sept. 19 email from attorney Steven Maher of the Maher Law Firm in Winter Park advising him of the firm’s plan to begin litigation against JUUL. A coalition of law firms around the country are working together on the litigation.
Maher is offering to file the proposed litigation on behalf of the Levy County School District.
Aside from the adverse effects vaping causes, Maher said students that are vaping at school cause major disruptions to school districts.
“As you know teen vaping has reached epidemic proportions, resulting in disastrous health consequences. ‘Big Tobacco’ has again engaged in a marketing campaign targeting children, and as a result, many, many kids have become addicted to nicotine after years of smoking being on the decline,” he said.
Maher said the proposed litigation would seek damages and would be aimed at protecting and educating young people about the dangers of using e-cigarettes.
“Essentially, the proposed litigation seeks to recoup past and future expenses that schools have and will incur because of this epidemic,” Maher said. “We believe that the litigation will also help to implement social change through education and awareness of the dangers of the JUUL products and to punish JUUL for raking billion dollar profits by compromising the health and well-being of school-age children.”
Maher’s father and law partner, Mike Maher, was the chair of the trial team that represented the State of Florida in its lawsuit against the tobacco industry in the late 1999s, resulting in an $11.3 billion settlement on behalf of the state. The company worked hand in hand with then Gov. Lawton Chiles and Attorney Robert Butterworth to make it happen.
School Superintendent Jeff Edison said the threat of vaping is real for school-age children in Levy County.
“Those of you who have kids in our schools, I would suggest you have a conversation with them about this,” Edison said. “I don’t think Levy County is any different than any other school district.”
Delaney took an even tougher view on the subject.
“Purely from a personal level, I’m offended at the number of these smoke shops that are run right down the block from schools. That’s not right, even though they can’t sell to most of their clients,” Delaney said. “I think there has been an effort to target most of our students by some of these companies. I don’t know specifically about JUUL or their marketing plan.”
Maher said schools have been placed on the front lines of fighting the vaping epidemic “because of JUUL’s tremendous impact on middle and high school students.”
“This has had a detrimental effect on the educational process and has required an urgent and significant commitment of resources to combat the epidemic,” he said. “Vaping with JUUL products has created a major distraction for students, teachers and administrators. Teachers and school administrators have been put in the position of having to monitor and police vaping at schools. Some schools have hired additional school resource officers, while others have purchased costly specialized monitoring devices and test kits to test confiscated devices. Also school suspensions have skyrocketed, and schools have had to dedicate precious resources to discipline and deterrence.”
School Board of Levy County Regular Meeting September 24, 2019; Posted September 30, 2019
