TO: ALL PRINCIPALS AND SCHOOL COUNSELORS
FROM: PAT CONNER
DATE: 2/9/06
RE: “THE CHOKING GAME”
As you know, Daniel Shepherd, 11, a Robertson County student passed away on Tuesday from playing ‘the choking game’ also known as the ‘passing out game’ or ‘the hanging game’. In recent years the popularity of this game has increased and has been featured on such shows as Oprah Winfrey. This is a very dangerous game that most parents or adults don’t know exists and most kids don’t know the consequences. The game is most frequently played by children ages 9 to 14 years old; however, there are instances of children both older and younger who have been injured or died.
I am attaching information that I have gathered and condensed from websites on the Internet about ‘the choking game’. Please feel free to share this information with teachers and parents at your school. Also, talk to your students about the dangers associated with playing this game. Students in the 5th grade are not too young to talk to about this and you may even want to talk to your 4th graders. I would not recommend talking to students below the 4th grade. As with inhalant education, we should never show or tell students how to play the game. Some of your students have siblings or know of friends who have played this game or talked about playing “the choking game’. If so, they should tell an adult they trust about this – it could possibly save the life of a child.
Also, listed below are websites that talk about “the choking game”. This is a very dangerous game that kids are often very secretive about. We need to tell them about the dangers associated with this potentially deadly game. If you have any questions or concerns please give me a call.
http://www.connectwithkids.com/tipsheet/2005/235_jun29/choke.html
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/08/09/choking.game/index.html
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/07/28/earlyshow/main712411.shtml
http://www.guidancechannel.com/default.aspx?index=1878&cat=13
http://lungdiseases.about.com/od/generalinformation1/a/choking_game.htm
http://www.stop-the-choking-game.com/
http://www.dylan-the-boy-blake.com/FactSheet.html
“Between 400 and 500 kids a year die from this game…And that doesn’t count those that just have serious injuries and have to get tracheotomies, or they have strokes, or that have memory loss, that have other neurological impairments secondary to asphyxiation.” - Dr. Phil McGraw
“The danger is pretending it doesn’t exist. Kids already know this game; it’s the parents who are clueless. You have to talk about it. It’s not as if you’re telling them something they don’t already know.” - Dr. Thomas Andrew, Pediatrician & New Hampshire Chief Medical Examiner
The Choking Game, also known as “the passing out game”, “dreaming”, “the hanging game”, “ghost”, is a concept that has been around for a long time. The primary goal is to cause a friend to literally choke or lose breath and feel a consciousness altering experience or a “high”. Kids compress a friend’s chest or squeeze their neck to cut off the flow of oxygen. In the first step, the person being choked will feel light-headed due to the reduced blood flow, and lack of oxygen to the brain, causing a perceived “high”. Once the pressure has been lifted the surge of blood back into the brain creates a perceived “rush”.
According to experts, a child playing this game could lose consciousness within a minute and die in as little as 2-4 minutes as the weight of their body further constricts blood and oxygen to the brain.
Deaths or brain damage can occur when kids try to induce the high by themselves. In many cases, kids are constricting themselves with ties or belts. When the flow of oxygen is cut off they unintentionally pass out leaving no one to loosen the “noose” they have created and save themselves. When first discovered these cases are often marked as suicide when in fact these kids had no intention of killing themselves..
Even kids who play the game with friends are still at risk for permanent brain damage, harm to the retina, accidental fall from passing out, and death. In addition, if the kid’s partner accidentally squeezes a small group of nerve cells in the neck, the heart can come to a complete stop.
Sometimes but the two are not synonymous. In cases of Auto-erotic asphyxia, an element of sexual satisfaction is involved. Like the Choking Game, AeA causes death due to oxygen deprivation to the brain and, like the Choking Game, the officials investigating these deaths often confuse AeA with suicide. AeA is typically played by older teens and usually carried out alone using either a belt or tie.
Whose Doing It and Why?
The age range of kids who most often participate in this behavior is 9-14 years. Many pre-teens and teens participate in this lethal game out of curiosity-not rebellion, depression or anger. Some do it for the high, which can become addictive. Others do it because it’s “cool” and risky. Most of the kids who have died from this were not children in trouble. Most were well-liked, active, intelligent, stable children who wanted nothing to do with drugs or alcohol. This was an activity they felt was safe. Kids have no clue about the physiological principles involved and need to be told by the adults in their lives how dangerous this is. Also, kids have no concept of their own mortality. They truly believe nothing can hurt them.
Parents, teachers, and counselors should be on the look-out for:
1. Inexplicable marks or bruises on the throat;
2. Frequent severe headaches;
3. Bloodshot or red eyes;
4. Belts, leashes, ropes, shoelaces, ties, scarves tied in strange knots or found in unusual locations;
5. Unexplained cuts or bruises from falling;
6. Disorientation after spending time alone;
7. Locked bedroom doors.
Parents should also pay attention to the web sites their child may be visiting. Look out for sites that include the words “Passout,” “Blackout,” “Space Monkey,” “Knockout,” “Gasp,” or “Rising Sun.” Also check web blogs or chat rooms where children may be discussing the game.
1. Teach students that this is not a game and that it’s extremely dangerous. Kids are fascinated by the fact that they can self-induce this type of high without using drugs. They know that it’s risky and dangerous—that’s part of the allure of the game-but few know that it can be deadly.
2. Educate parents of the warning signs to look for.
3. Monitor school bathrooms, playgrounds, closets or closed classrooms, and other opportunities where students have to be alone together and could play the game.
4. Understand that risk taking is a safe and natural part of growing up. Provide students with alternatives for safer risk taking. There are many activities, like skateboarding, which produce a safe natural endorphin or “high” for kids.
5. If information is disclosed to school personnel that a student is playing the “choking game”, immediately notify the parent/guardian.
1. Supervise the child very closely.
2. Dispose of items that could be employed for this purpose.
3. Talk to your child about this activity. They often don’t know that this activity can kill them or leave then brain damaged.
4. Alert school officials so that they can monitor your child. Often other students may also be participating.
5. Consider professional counseling and support for your child and your family.
6. Check that siblings are not involved in the game.
7. Consider alerting your child’s friends’ parents.
Even though kids consider this just a game we know that this is a game with serious, deadly consequences we can’t afford for our children to play. Even if they survive, children who participate are killing brain cells each time they do this. The damage done is permanent and cumulative. In addition, a child choking another child who is injured or dies may be indicted and prosecuted for his part in the death or injury.
Be sure to talk to kids about the dangers of the “Choking Game.” Don’t let them take their lives into their own hands.