Green Country schools offered settlement in Juul lawsuit

TULSA, Okla. — Some Green Country schools could be getting a cut of a multi-million dollar settlement with the vape company Juul Labs.

Schools across the country were part of a lawsuit against the manufacturer. Oklahoma schools that sued were awarded nearly $9 million in total.

To buy or use any vape products, you’ve got to be 21. However, a lawsuit against the company Juul Labs claimed they aimed their product at young people.

Schools in 34 states sued the vape manufacturer, including schools in Green Country.

William Schinoff from Frantz Law Group is an attorney who worked on the case. He said schools from across the country have dealt with the impacts of vaping.

“I represented almost 1000 schools across the country in this litigation and each one of them has stories to tell about the impacts in their community from vaping,” Schinoff said.

Back in September 2022, a $438.5 million settlement was reached in principle, and $8.9 million of that would come to Oklahoma.

“There are school districts in Oklahoma that have had to rush kids to the hospital in an ambulance because of either nicotine poisoning or other issues related to vaping and the other issue that we were seeing was the destruction of property when kids are going and tearing down vape detectors or flushing their vapes down the toilet to a disruption to the learning environment because not only are they doing it in the bathroom they’re doing it in the classroom,” Schinoff said.

Tulsa Public Schools (TPS) was offered a settlement of around $541,000. Jenks was offered about $126,000 and Bixby around $46,000.

The lawsuit claimed Juul targeted young people with its adverts and flavors.

Thomas Larson from the Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust said it’s going to take a lot to undo the harm that’s been done.

“The vaping epidemic has erased two decades of progress in reducing youth smoking so we see fewer kids smoking now but more than a quarter of Oklahoma youths are vaping and that’s problematic, vaping is not harmless, you know, the vape, the aerosol, has toxic chemicals in it, it has heavy metals like lead and nickel and it’s also creating an addiction in these young people that are going to stay with them for a lifetime,” Larson said.

Apart from the money, the settlement includes a list of advertising limitations banning Juul from youth marketing and product placement.

Earlier this month, the TPS Board of Education voted to accept the settlement they were offered.

Schinoff said payments are going to be made to all the school districts over a four-year period with 62% made in the first year.