A plumbing failure at Cactus Shadows High School temporarily knocked out air conditioning and disrupted three days of instruction at the Cave Creek campus. Administrators attributed tens of thousands of dollars in damage to a small number of teenagers, and the school has since restricted student restroom access.
According to ABC15 Arizona, the school's plumbing system failed after a small number of students forced objects that didn't belong down the toilets, a breakdown that strained building systems and forced the temporary shutdown of air conditioning at the Cave Creek school. The station reports the flushed items included tennis balls, fruit, clothing, school supplies and vapes. Cactus Shadows is part of the Cave Creek Unified School District.
Two Restrooms, Security Staff and a Head Count
The school has limited students to the two restrooms near the student commons, with security staff present, according to ABC15 Arizona. The school is also limiting how many students may enter at once while repairs continue.
A school letter cited in ABC15 Arizona's report warned that continued damage could lead the school to use portable restrooms. It also said students who damage property could be held responsible for repair costs and may face criminal charges.
A Pattern Playing Out Beyond Cave Creek
Schools have also responded to bathroom damage linked to vaping with enforcement measures. At Bel Air High School in Maryland, students flushing vaping devices damaged multiple toilets within a month, briefly leaving every bathroom in the building partially unusable, Vice reported. The school brought in metal detector wands and warned students they could be required to pay for damage; a replacement toilet cost about $200.
A separate question is how schools try to detect vaping. Vice cited a November 2025 report in Wired describing bathroom sensors and surveillance systems that monitor air quality and sound patterns. The report said some schools have invested in those systems as teen vaping has become embedded in school culture, with bathrooms serving as unofficial smoking sections.
Separately, NPR has reported that administrators and law enforcement elsewhere have blamed similar bathroom vandalism on a TikTok trend tied to the hashtag deviouslick or deviouslicks, with incidents nationwide ranging from a stolen soap dispenser and damaged sink in Florida to clogged toilets and ripped-out mirrors in California.
What Arizona Law Allows
Under Arizona law, a student who cuts, defaces or otherwise injures school property may be suspended or expelled, according to Arizona Revised Statutes § 15-842. A related statute, Arizona Revised Statutes § 13-1602, specifies that damages in such cases can include reasonable labor costs, reasonable material costs and reasonable costs attributed to equipment used to abate or repair the damage.
What state law and vaping data show
Arizona's aggravated-criminal-damage statute includes intentionally or recklessly damaging a school building or educational facility without the owner's express permission, according to the Arizona Legislature. That statute alone does not establish that it applies to any Cactus Shadows student. The school letter cited in the reporting warns students they could be responsible for repair costs and face criminal charges; the district has not said whether anyone has been disciplined. For broader context, the FDA says the share of U.S. middle and high school students reporting current e-cigarette use fell from 7.7% in 2023 to 5.9% in 2024, according to the 2024 National Youth Tobacco Survey. That national figure is not an Arizona-specific estimate and does not establish how much vaping occurs at school or explain the plumbing damage at Cactus Shadows.
Cave Creek Unified School District Superintendent Nicole Regan declined to comment to ABC15, saying officials are handling the matter internally. The district has not released further detail on how many students may be involved or whether anyone has faced discipline.
