The above picture shows a fourteen-year-old boy named Skylar Fish who almost died last week, and may suffer long-term consequences from playing a game called the Duct Tape Challenge. Kids wrap duct tape around a person to see how quickly that person can escape. Skylar had played the game before and I am sure he had fun. But this time, he was standing in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“(Skylar) Fish and his two friends decided to try the challenge again, taping Fish’s arms and legs while he was standing up. When he tried to break out of the duct tape, he fell face first, hitting his head on a window frame and slamming into the concrete on the ground.” (USA Today)

He ended up with a crushed eye socket and bleeding in the brain. With luck, Skylar will be fine, but doctors are not guaranteeing 100% recovery at this time. Skylar, his family and friends are just grateful he’s alive.

I remember my attempts to shut down the marshmallow game after a little girl died in a local cafeteria from seeing how many marshmallows she could stuff in her mouth. Similar games are played with Skittles and other candies. To all the teachers who read this blog, and other readers who work with kids regularly, games like this demand a deviation from the lesson plans. The Duct Tape Challenge is worth 5 or 10 minutes of classroom time with a picture of Skylar on the Smartboard and a full class discussion about the dangers of immobilizing yourself so you can’t put your arms out to block a fall. I’d add the dangers of blocking your windpipe with round or sticky objects that can’t easily be removed.

Eduhonesty: Mostly, I think our kids are scared enough by the dangers they see every day in the media, but the Duct Tape Game merits an exception. I’d bet there are thousands of injuries out there from that game, none of which were quite large enough to hit national or local news. A broken arm here, an infected scrape there, a few painful sets of healing ribs across the country — no one keeps track of cracked patellas. Games like this can take off easily because they are fun. I remember jumping off the garage roof with my friends when I was a kid. We had a great time until mom shut that particular pastime down. But the fact that no one got hurt was pure luck. Kids don’t see possible consequences when they get a chance to jump off the roof. That roof feels like the roller coaster, a rush of excitement and a chance to show off in front of friends. Adults need to fill in the blanks about a downside most kids today cannot even imagine.

P.S. I’d be careful about this one, though. I might inquire with a few students first if they had ever heard of this game. You don’t want to give kids ideas. For some kids, the surest way to get them to jump off a roof is to tell them not to do it. If I took class time for this, I’d focus on how utterly helpless people are when they can’t move their arms, and how dumb it is to let someone take your arms away from you. No kid wants to be helpless and dumb.