I’ve noticed a recent spate of unfathomable stories like this one. Apparently, the “choking game” is now a youth fad. See also here and here. (I’m sure there will be readers writing in to tell me it’s been around for ages and I have nothing to worry about–been there, done that.) What I want to know is how any adult could allow this to happen in front of his/her own eyes. From today’s Seattle Times:

The same day a Seattle girl died after apparently hanging herself while playing a choking game, a Grays Harbor County boy was admitted to a Tacoma hospital with brain damage after choking himself, fainting and hitting his head in front of a group of middle-school students and teachers…

…[On] Wednesday, a 14-year-old boy who attends Elma Middle School in Elma, Grays Harbor County, was taken to Tacoma’s Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital as a result of playing the choking game, said Dr. Gary Park.

According to Park, the boy hyperventilated and passed out, fell and fractured his skull. The incident happened at school and was captured on videotape, he said, adding the boy suffered “significant brain damage.”

“It’s totally unbelievable [and it's] such a senseless act. Kids don’t appreciate what could happen,” Park said.

Elma Middle School Principal Greg Scroggins said the boy and some other students were talking about the recent death of a California school child from playing the choking game. The boy, an eighth-grader, decided to try it.

The boy hunched over, put his hands on his neck to stop his breathing, fell over backward and hit his head, Scroggins said.

Who videotaped the boy’s death? Where were the teachers? What the…?