In ‘The Choking Game’ children use their hands, ropes, leashes, chains, ties or belts to cut off their oxygen. Kids get a ‘high’ when the pressure is released and the blood rushes back to the brain

By Katherine Lewis (Contact)

Friday, January 27, 2006

The 911 call is chilling.

Samuel Mordecai, 13, is sobbing into the phone to the 911 dispatcher who answered his call.

“I think my brother’s dead!” he cries. “There’s a rope around his neck and he’s hanging from the bunk bed and he’s all purple and stuff.”

When the operator asks Samuel where his mother is, he tells her she is trying to revive his twin brother.

But no one could revive Gabriel Mordecai. The California teen lost his life in May, accidentally hanging himself while playing “The Choking Game.”

It is the kind of phone call deputies at the Collier County Sheriff’s Office hope never to hear.

The department has launched an initiative through its school resource officers and Youth Relations Bureau to stop this “game,” which has been circulating through teen and pre-teen culture across the United States.

In “The Choking Game,” children use their hands, ropes, leashes, chains, ties or belts to cut off their oxygen. Kids get a “high” when the pressure is released and the blood rushes back to the brain.

“Kids don’t realize it can hurt you. If they do it once and it feels good, they are going to want to do it again,” said sheriff’s Cmdr. Tim Guerette. “But every time you deprive your brain of oxygen, you kill brain cells. And if you go under for two or three minutes or longer, you have a chance of causing permanent brain damage or death.”

Collier County has not reported deaths or injuries attributed to this “game,” but children across the country have died or been seriously injured as a result.

Deputies from the department’s Youth Relations Bureau attended a presentation on “The Choking Game” on Thursday. Guerette said the department was trying to get a handle on the issue before something tragic happens.

“Just being out there in the schools, we hear a lot and it is important we are aware of this and have the resources to intervene and help,” he said.

Guerette said he has had children tell him that “The Choking Game” is going on in Collier County.

The game goes by several names, including “The American Dream Game,” “The Flatliner Game,” “Space Cowboy,” “The Passout Game,” “Suffocation Roulette” and “The Tingling Game,” among others.

Guerette said adults have told him that they did something similar when they were kids. But this game, he told the almost 40 adults in the sheriff’s training room at the Lorenzo Walker Institute of Technology, is more dangerous than the game some people played when they were kids.

“It is never safe. But these kids are using ligature devices and they are doing it alone,” he said. “When you do it alone, there is no release. There is no way to get out of it.”

Parents are encouraged to speak with their children about this dangerous activity. They are also urged to look for warning signs to determine whether a child is participating in this activity.

Those warning signs include unexplained marks on the neck; short ropes, cords or neckties tied in odd knots or found in unusual places; complaints of headaches or bloodshot eyes; disorientation after spending time alone; or unusual demands for privacy or locked doors.

“Be involved. Know what your kids are doing,” Guerette said. “Don’t be one of those parents who don’t like to invade your child’s privacy. Be on them.”

Although the information was first distributed to the school and youth resource officers, Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Stephanie Spell said it is information that will be passed out agency wide.

Sgt. Joseph Scott, who oversees several of the Youth Relations Bureau officers, said “The Choking Game” is just the latest dangerous fad kids have fallen into.

“Last year, it was Triple C, this year it’s ‘The Choking Game,’” he said, referring to last year’s fad of taking too much Coricidin HBP Cough and Cold to cause hallucinations, which can lead to death.

“It’s a shame and it is just something that us being fueled by blogs and the Internet. Kids talk to kids and they try it. What they don’t understand is how dangerous all of this is.”

For more information on “The Choking Game,” visit www.teenchokinggame.com or www.stopthechokinggame.com.

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