What In Gods Name Were These Kids Thinking
Idaho Boy Dies While Playing Choking Game
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
BOISE, Idaho — A 10-year-old boy who died after hanging himself from a
tree is apparently the second Idaho youth killed while playing a
choking game.
The Fremont County sheriff's office (search) said Dalton Eby apparently
was playing a game known as the "pass-out game," trying to cut off the
oxygen supply to his brain to achieve a type of "high."
The boy's mother reported him missing last Thursday night when he
failed to return home after visiting a friend. Search and rescue crews
found his body Friday, hanging from a tree near his Island Park home,
the sheriff's office said in a statement.
"Dalton was found with the rope looped around his neck," the sheriff's
office said. "There was no sign of a struggle, nor was there any
physical evidence to indicate anyone else had been at the scene."
The statement added, "During the course of the investigation it was
learned that there is a game that is common knowledge to many of our
youth. A game known as the 'pass-out game,' the 'fainting game,'
the 'tingling game,' or the 'something dreaming game' — to name a few,"
the release said.
Dalton's parents had never heard of the game, and neither had the
parents of his friends, the sheriff's office said. That was also the
case three months ago in Nampa, where 13-year-old Chelsea Dunn (search)
was found dead after apparently hanging herself in her closet.
A police investigation into her death was inconclusive, but Dunn's
family believes she died accidentally while playing the game, which was
popular with a group of girls at her East Valley Middle School.
Six girls at the Nampa school were suspended for a day after school
officials reviewed a security camera videotape that showed the seventh
graders choking each other in a hallway.
Dalton's father, Dave Eby, did not want to comment on Fremont County
investigators' theory that his son also died while participating in a
voluntary asphyxiation game. After burying his son Monday, he told the
Post Register newspaper he wanted to thank his neighbors for
their "generosity and caring during this hard time."
Young teens and children lack the judgment to understand that making
themselves pass out can be fatal, said Connecticut-based child
psychologist Dr. Lawrence Shapiro (search), the author of "The Secret
Language of Children: How to Understand What Your Kids are Really
Saying."
Though the so-called game is new to many adults — including himself —
Shapiro said it's likely something that children have been doing for a
long time.
"That's scary. I can't say that I have heard of this before, but it's
not that surprising because kids do all sorts of crazy things," Shapiro
said.
In addition to talking to kids about drugs and alcohol, parents should
also discuss risky behavior like the pass-out game, Shapiro said.
"Younger kids don't know that they can die from this, that it's a very
dangerous activity. Sometimes kids hear about it, that other kids are
doing it, but they don't hear the rest of the story, the risks,"
Shapiro said. "It's like diving into a pool in the shallow end —
parents have to tell their kids not to do it."
Nathan Hoiosen, a school resource officer with the Nampa Police
Department, said youngsters think the choking game offers a "safe" buzz
compared to drinking or doing drugs.
"It's one of those undetectable things, no signs until it's too late,"
Hoiosen said.
Children have been playing hyperventilation or asphyxiation games for
decades, he said, but using ropes or other ligatures seems to be a new
trend.
"It's scary, though," he said. "You wish you could just take the kids
and shake them and say, 'What are you thinking?'"
