Education TRACKer: Talk to your kids about the Choking Game
This post has more to do about educating yourselves as parents than about schools, but I thought I’d get on my soapbox again in case you hadn’t heard about a dangerous game some children and teens “play” that can be fatal.
If you have been a member of Triangle Tracks for a while, you might have read an earlier post that I wrote about a parent seminar at Green Hope High School. An SBI agent shared plenty of scary but true images and information about teens and the dangers available on the Internet. One was the Choking Game.
Not a new thing (kids were doing it ages ago when we were kids), the Choking Game allows people to get a high from asphyxiation—using a belt, a cord or even their own hands to cut off the air supply.
You can read in The Cary News about two local cases where this “fun” game has led to the deaths of teenagers: http://www.carynews.com/front/story/12239.html .
Reporter Vickie Jean Dehamer points out that the kids who play the Choking Game are often high-achieving, well-adjusted students who don’t get drunk, take drugs or get into trouble. Which, in my opinion, is all the more reason to tell every child about the dangers of this allegedly cool game.
The YouTube video the SBI agent showed at the parent meeting was shocking not only because of the behavior—two girls standing on a bed giving a how-to on hyperventilating and passing out—but because of the age of the girls. To my parental eye, they appeared only a few years older than my tiny little kindergartner. Probably, they were “old” at 12 or 13. Yikes.
Only a few short minutes can mean the difference between life and death in the Choking Game: a few seconds is super-fun, three minutes of oxygen deprivation can lead to significant brain damage, and four minutes can mean death.
One thing I’ve learned since becoming a parent is that your children can surprise you. In wonderful ways, in brilliant ways, and as some very devastated parents are finding out, in horrible ways. The parents had no idea their children were doing this and found out too late.
I urge you to educate yourselves and your families about the dangers out there. Your children may think that the absence of drugs makes this a “clean” way to get high.
Here are some resources to get you started:
http://www.cdc.gov/Features/ChokingGame/
www.netsmartz.org
If you have been a member of Triangle Tracks for a while, you might have read an earlier post that I wrote about a parent seminar at Green Hope High School. An SBI agent shared plenty of scary but true images and information about teens and the dangers available on the Internet. One was the Choking Game.
Not a new thing (kids were doing it ages ago when we were kids), the Choking Game allows people to get a high from asphyxiation—using a belt, a cord or even their own hands to cut off the air supply.
You can read in The Cary News about two local cases where this “fun” game has led to the deaths of teenagers: http://www.carynews.com/front/story/12239.html .
Reporter Vickie Jean Dehamer points out that the kids who play the Choking Game are often high-achieving, well-adjusted students who don’t get drunk, take drugs or get into trouble. Which, in my opinion, is all the more reason to tell every child about the dangers of this allegedly cool game.
The YouTube video the SBI agent showed at the parent meeting was shocking not only because of the behavior—two girls standing on a bed giving a how-to on hyperventilating and passing out—but because of the age of the girls. To my parental eye, they appeared only a few years older than my tiny little kindergartner. Probably, they were “old” at 12 or 13. Yikes.
Only a few short minutes can mean the difference between life and death in the Choking Game: a few seconds is super-fun, three minutes of oxygen deprivation can lead to significant brain damage, and four minutes can mean death.
One thing I’ve learned since becoming a parent is that your children can surprise you. In wonderful ways, in brilliant ways, and as some very devastated parents are finding out, in horrible ways. The parents had no idea their children were doing this and found out too late.
I urge you to educate yourselves and your families about the dangers out there. Your children may think that the absence of drugs makes this a “clean” way to get high.
Here are some resources to get you started:
http://www.cdc.gov/Features/ChokingGame/
www.netsmartz.org
Tags: asphyxiation, cary, choking, death, deprivation, education, game, news, oxygen, teens
Comment
About
© 2010 Created by Elizabeth Shugg on Ning. Create a Ning Network!
You need to be a member of Triangle TRACKS to add comments!
Join Triangle TRACKS