There’s not much to see this time of year in area schools.

Classrooms are empty and cafeterias quiet, except for the sounds of maintenance staff keeping buildings clean and safe and making small changes before schools reopen this fall.

Behind all that, another change is in the works, especially in the Jim Thorpe Area School District, where officials are working to update its tobacco policy for the first time in more than a decade.

It’s not because they need more rules, but because the world its students live in has changed faster than the rule book.

The district’s old policy was written in 2014, back when “tobacco” meant a cigarette or a pinch of dip between the cheek and gum. Vaping hadn’t yet caught on and synthetic nicotine wasn’t on every convenience store counter.

And no one imagined a device the size of a thumb drive could deliver enough of the stuff to turn a middle schooler into an addict in just a few weeks.

So the district is widening the definition, not to punish kids, but hoping to protect them from all the changes.

What’s happening around here is going on all across the state.

Schools are doing their best, as are families.

But it’s hard to keep up when storefronts that peddle this stuff keep popping up around places where kids spend their time.

There’s a proposal in Harrisburg to change all that.

House Bill 2295 would prohibit smoke shops from opening or renewing leases within 500 feet of schools, day care centers, youth centers, parks and existing smoke shops.

It’s a response to a real threat. Some studies have shown that more than 15% of Pennsylvania high school students now use e-cigarettes, many with flavors like Froot Loops, Orange Creamsicle and other childhood favorites.

Especially in larger cities, neighborhoods have already seen what happens when smoke shops set up near playgrounds or schools.

Community members tell stories about how selling to kids happens out in the open, many times because enforcement is almost impossible.

To shut down a shop for selling to minors, police need to witness violations three times in a year.

Though there’s a slim chance of that happening in places where police staffing is adequate, it’s not really possible in many local communities struggling to hire and retain a police force.

Sometimes, opponents say honest businesses are caught in the middle of the issue. Their concern is understandable, but can be easily fixed with a grandfather clause.

But damage to business isn’t the real problem.

It’s the damage that happens to kids whose young, developing brains are being influenced by nicotine.

It’s the hurt their families endure while trying to help their teenager kick a habit that started while experimenting with a watermelon ice disposable they picked up at a street around the corner.

And it’s the damage to communities that contribute more than $7 billion in smoking-related disease payments.

In those same places, it’s not an issue of a huge, noisy building that draws traffic like flies. There’s no zoning issue or no boundary lines involved.

It is, though, an issue of temptation.

As a child of the 1960s, I can remember television ads with the slogan “I’d walk a mile for a Camel,” that praised the flavor of its fine tobacco.

We didn’t have to walk far to get one.

The mom-and-pop store about a block from home sold them loose — 2 cents apiece — to anyone tall enough to see over the counter. A dime earned from deposits on soda bottles would buy enough smokes to last a day or so.

These days, especially with what we know now about the dangers of e-cigarettes, availability in many places is still an issue.

We’re talking about a kid not yet old enough for a driver’s license walking 10 steps off a sidewalk — not walking a mile — to get nicotine that’s waiting for them on their way home.

The policy update in Jim Thorpe reminds us all that schools can’t do this alone.

They can teach, support and offer some sort of intervention. Detectors in all the usual places can sniff out offenders.

But they can’t control what’s available on the streets.

That’s something only lawmakers can change.

It’s about priorities and deciding that children’s’ health matters more than the corner storefront.

If we want healthy kids, we need their path to lead straight toward that goal.

Jim Thorpe is taking a step in that direction.

Lawmakers should, too.

ED SOCHA | tneditor@tnonline.com