Westport father assaults son after swallowing e-cigarette

In an update on this morning’s story involving Westport students swallowing e-cigarettes (Several-westport-students-ingest-e-cigarette-leading-one-to-the-hospital), it has been learned that a father of one of the students has been arrested.

According to Detective Sergeant Christopher Dunn, upon learning of the incident this morning, a father of one of the students arrived at Westport High School while his son was displaying erratic behavior and showing signs of intoxication. The father subsequently assaulted his son and was placed under arrest for assault and battery on a household member. He was processed at the Westport Police Station and later transported to the Fall River Justice Center for arraignment.

Dunn stated that both the Westport Public Schools and the Westport Police Department work in conjunction to educate and conduct investigations into people/businesses that sell nicotine products to underage people. During the course of the 2018-2019 school year, information was relayed from school personnel to School Resource Officer Kyle Fernandes regarding the sale of aforementioned nicotine containing products. This lead to an investigation into Cedars Smoke Shop located at 35 State Road in Westport which resulted in a 60-day loss of license.

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention the use of e-cigarettes is unsafe for kids, teens, and young adults. Most e-cigarettes contain nicotine, using an e-cigarette is sometimes called “vaping” or “JUULing.” Nicotine is highly addictive and can harm adolescent brain development, which continues into the early to mid-20s. E-cigarettes can contain other harmful substances besides nicotine. These substances are what is suspected to have led to the erratic and assaultive behavior of the juvenile today. Young people who use e-cigarettes may be more likely to smoke cigarettes in the future. All JUUL e-cigarettes have a high level of nicotine, according to the manufacturer, a single JUUL pod contains as much nicotine as a pack of 20 regular cigarettes.

During the course of today’s incident, school officials were able to confiscate the e-cigarette which led to two students being transported to a local hospital. School Resource Officer Fernades conducted a field analysis of the confiscated pod which resulted in a positive finding of THC.