Northeast

New York school district installs vape detectors in middle school bathrooms that can also pick up sound

Published

2 years ago

June 10, 2024

New York school district installs vape detectors in middle school bathrooms that can also pick up sound

A New York school district has begun installing vape detectors in middle school bathrooms.

The FlySense FS300 vape detectors at Lindenhurst Middle School on Long Island can pick up nicotine and THC, as well as sound to notify officials of fights or bullying.

Two vape detectors have been installed in each of the bathrooms at the middle school. The Town of Babylon paid for the devices using funds from the American Rescue Plan.

“The device not only picks up nicotine in the air, it also picks up on THC and also picks up on aggressive behavior, so students looking to bully and fight in the bathrooms,” Derek Peterson of Soter Technologies, which developed the detectors, told CBS New York.

US SCHOOLS INVEST MILLIONS IN SURVEILLANCE TECHNOLOGY TO COMBAT TEEN VAPING EPIDEMIC

A New York school district has started installing vape detectors in middle school bathrooms. (iStock)

The detectors can sense air quality and shifts in sound. Peterson said the devices use artificial intelligence algorithms that can differentiate between a door and toilet lid slam from “when somebody is roughhousing in the bathroom.”

But, Peterson said, there are no microphones in the devices.

When anomalies are detected, an email is immediately sent to Principal Frank Naccarato. The students caught vaping will then be connected to professional intervention services.

“There’s still a consequence, but now we’ve added that education piece … They also have to do a component of research based on vapes, how it hurts you,” Naccarato told CBS New York.

FDA WARNS THAT NICOTINE-LIKE CHEMICALS IN VAPES MAY BE MORE POTENT THAN NICOTINE

The FlySense FS300 vape detectors at Lindenhurst Middle School on Long Island can pick up nicotine and THC. (Getty Images)

Two students have already been caught and connected to professional services since the detectors were installed two weeks ago.

The district considered the idea of adding the detectors to the bathrooms at the suggestion of student Vanessa Probst, 15, who learned from speaking with friends that her classmates were so addicted they would head to the bathroom to vape.

“I was doing research on it, and I saw the side effects and how you can get popcorn lung, all the severe cancer you can get,” she told CBS New York.

The detectors are expected to soon be installed at Lindenhurst High School, as well as other districts, including Copiague and Wyandanch.

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New York

This Memorial Day Starts a Summer That Is Longer Than Most

Published

4 hours ago

May 25, 2026

Press Room

This Memorial Day Starts a Summer That Is Longer Than Most

There will be more ice cream in 2026. More bare feet and blowing dandelions. More iced tea and Frisbees and sandals. More mosquitoes and mowing? No, please, not that, for goodness’ sake, replace it with more hammock naps and fireflies caught after sunset.

Summer is kind of, sort of, just maybe actually going to be longer this year.

Unofficially the summer begins on Memorial Day, when we break out the white clothing, and ends on Labor Day, when we pack it away again. In between: ball games, sand in your shoes, Dad insisting he knows how to light the grill and Mom chasing you down to apply another coat of sunblock.

And Memorial Day falls on the earliest possible day this year: May 25. And Labor Day is on the latest possible day: Sept. 7. It’s a SuperSummer! A Summerganza! A Summerpalooza! (You can do better than us, reader, we know you can.)

Of course, none of this is official. People in the Northeast last week felt like it was already summer as the temperature surged into the 90s (then they had to contend with an unseasonably cool Memorial Day weekend).

The season officially starts this year, astronomically speaking, with the summer solstice on June 21, and ends with the fall equinox on Sept. 22.

That is hardly how we live it.

June 21? We’re already sunburned by then. September 22? We’re mired in geometry tests and the local corn maze. (I swear the exit was somewhere around here.)

But Memorial Day has become the checkpoint to the days of summer.

The act of Congress that established this remembrance of fallen armed service members says that the federal holiday falls on the final Monday of May. This year, because the month begins on a Friday, that’s the startlingly early date of May 25. And when that happens, Labor Day, the first Monday of September, lingers all the way to Sept. 7.

The Long, Hot Summer? Definitely. 500 Days of Summer? This year it’s 106, up from a paltry 99 in 2025. The Endless Summer? We can dream.

This has happened before, most recently in 2020, a year we had other things on our minds beside sand castles.

The frequency of the stretched out summer is complicated. Calendars, like a melting rainbow snow cone, are not neat and pretty. We will have to wait 11 years, until 2037, for the next MegaSummer. The cycle continues, with the next longer summer six years later, then in five years, then six years, then 11 again. Then repeat.

But even in the midst of summer’s joy, the cool nip of fall and the responsibilities it brings are never too far away. Children and their parents will never quite be able to forget the start of the school year, another unofficial moment that feels like season’s end.

With such a stretched-out summer, will kids get to avoid “creeping like snail / unwillingly to school” a little longer this year? And by extension, will parents have to turn over more pages of the calendar before the sweet return of the school bell?

The start of the school year varies around the country. The late Labor Day will feel like true break after weeks of school in some jurisdictions. Then there is New York City, where schools open a bit later, in part because of union contracts. This year, that will be the staggeringly late date of Sept. 10, six days later than 2025.

Boston, MA

The 2026 Boston Red Sox are a chore to watch

Published

5 hours ago

May 25, 2026

Press Room

The 2026 Boston Red Sox are a chore to watch

What do you even want me to say at this point, respectfully?

Before I get on my soap box and complain for however-many words, let me just quickly say that I appreciate the fact that you’re here. It’s a holiday Monday, you could’ve done anything else with your long weekend, and yet you decided to read the upset ramblings of a man who is really pissed off with his shitty baseball team. For that, I thank you. Isn’t that the American Dream, what I’m living out right now?

Tongue-in-cheek comments aside: I’m exhausted, folks. Not with the writing—I’ll be here on OTM until the bitter end—but with the watching. Forgive me for the stream of consciousness this week, but I don’t know what else to do.

The 2026 Boston Red Sox are a chore to watch. I don’t really remember the last time I’ve ever felt that way in my life. I’m not sure I’ve ever felt that way, actually, now that I think about it. I was in high school in 2012; I still had that youthful spunk where I wanted to watch my team. I was still probably riding enough of a high after 2013 to ensure that the following two season weren’t a monotonous watch. Even the non-‘21-and-‘25 teams in the 2020’s weren’t this miserable to sit through at this point in the season, at least for me (your mileage may vary).

After a sweep at the hands of the Minnesota Twins, the Sox are dangerously close to being 10 games under .500, as if avoiding that label would be any fucking consolation prize for a team that was getting AL pennant shouts two months ago (and I’m guilty of that too! I had Seattle winning the pennant over us! Not that the Seattle prediction is going well, but my goodness!). This team is a joke. They are, simply put, pathetic. I’m not sure how in depth I can go with that as my basis right now.

Perhaps this is just my own personal reckoning with the situation, but doesn’t this feel like the right time for it? The unofficial date to begin worrying about your team has always been Memorial Day. We’re there now, and I think the season’s just about over already. There’s no generational prospect coming up through the minors to help us. The coaching staff has already been cleaned out. The money is being allocated by FSG in some capacity, for all the ownership group’s faults, yet here we are. The roster construction is still a mess and it will continue to be a mess for the immediate future.

To quote a wise sheriff…

If there’s a way out of this mess, I can’t personally see it. I try to be as optimistic as possible, but I do not see a path to 270 electoral votes this year. I’d love to eat these words in a few months, but I don’t believe in this group. I’ve seen enough. I’ll keep watching because I’m a sicko. I’ll keep writing about this team because I love writing and I love the Red Sox and I love this lil’ gig I’ve been blessed with getting. But I sure as hell do not love this iteration of the team, man. We’ll have plenty of time to talk about what needs to happen to right the ship (I don’t want to be rash, but I’m becoming more and more of a #BreslowOut guy as the days go on, slowly but surely), but as for right now: I think the prospects we had in late March about this team contending in October are just about done and dusted.

If you’re a consistent reader, you know that I like to dive into the developments that have happened over the course of the week in the MMBB, whether they’re good or bad. That practice will continue for the rest of the season. I’ll try to be as optimistic as possible moving forward in 2026, but just know that I’m probably harboring a sense of dread alongside any positive words I have until I’m given a reason by the team to feel otherwise. Why waste my time by thinking things could be getting better this season when I’m talking about any consistent trends that Jarren Duran might’ve had at the plate this week? The last time I did that, he sucked for another week-and-change. I did the same with Marcelo Mayer before then, and it’s been even worse for him. I could talk until I’m blue in the face about the positive trends being made by a Payton Tolle or a Sonny Gray or a, dare I say, Brayan Bello when he’s being preceded by an opener.

Doesn’t matter, dude. We suck shit.

All of those positive trends could be true in a vacuum, but I don’t think they’re gonna ultimately matter this year—short of something extraordinary happening. The pitching’s been pretty solid overall, the defense has been stellar, and I’ve tried finding the positives in an underwhelming lineup. All of that together has gotten us eight games below an even .500. We’re a laughing stock in the league; a banter club, if you follow the Premier League. We’ve got Buster Olney saying we’ve got to abort the Caleb Durbin experiment. The question of “What the fuck are we doing in the front office” is a legitimate one at this stage. To get even more existential, another great question is “What is the plan moving forward?”

We’ve got nothing going for us on a consistent basis. Even after a sweep in Kansas City, the team goes and shits their pants yet again at home. The only time I’ve ever given true credence to the idea of momentum not being a thing has been with watching this collection of guys representing the Red Sox, because I haven’t seen an ounce of it this year. What is there to look forward to for the last four months of the year?

I guess I’ve gotta answer that question for myself. Maybe you do as well.

Again: I’ll be here for y’all. I’ll talk about positive and negative trends as I see ‘em, because I like talking ball. I love this team, I love this sport, and I love talking about both the team as well as the sport.

But I suppose this is my official declaration that I’m not gonna be fooled by this specific group going forward. I’ve been patient enough thus far; the patience is gone. I’m not holding any reservations for them for the rest of the year, because they don’t deserve those reservations. We’ve crossed the Rubicon, if the Rubicon was filled with poo. Maybe we’re drowning in that Rubicon instead, come to think of it. Either way: I don’t see a way where we could be going back.

I’ll still watch, I’ll still write, I’ll still support, but I don’t believe in this group as things currently stand. I’d love to be proven wrong, but I don’t think I’m alone in this sentiment. What have they done to prove otherwise? I’ve tried putting a spotlight on positive things (and I’m not trying to sound like the end-all-be-all of Sox analysis here, folks; this is just my personal ramblings) and they haven’t amounted to much of anything. I don’t care how bad the American League is. We’re a prime example of that suckiness. How many times can the boy cry wolf? How many times can the Sox blogger cry positive regression?

I dunno, folks. I’m just exhausted with this team already. I think it’ll be a………………………………………..