Mom launches campaign against the choking game

[Sister Iroz]

Vickie Morgan never thought she'd be obsessed with the on-line social networking website known as Facebook. That is until the long-time Pasadena ISD school board member’s daughter, Jenny, 17, died.

"It's the worst pain that a mother can go through,” said Vickie Morgan. "I walked over to her and I said, ‘Jenny,’ and when I did I touched her and I said, ‘Jenny. My God, my God, what has happened’”?

Jenny Morgan, a senior at Pasadena Memorial High School, died in December.

Vickie Morgan believes the “choking game” cost her teenage daughter her life.

"We fully believe Jenny was doing it for peer pressure. She wanted to be accepted," said the teen’s mother.

To play the choking game you 'choke' someone or 'choke' yourself. After a short time, you pass out.

Experts say that some teens do it for a brief 'high.' The CDC reports that nearly 100 people have died from playing this deadly game.

"I don't want another family to go through this pain," said Vickie Morgan.

Now, she is asking the world to join her efforts to "Help Stop the Choking Game."

"There are 3,419 people that have joined our cause. I'd like to see it hit 5, 000," said Vickie Morgan. "They need to understand that it's a deadly game and the kids are doing it, good kids are doing it. They are doing it in groups. They are doing it singly. It's when they do it alone when most of the time the kids die."

Vickie Morgan’s Facebook page is filled with information on the game. She also corresponds with people who have joined her cause and is working with the Pasadena ISD police department to educate others.

http://www.khou.com/news/local/stori...e.8b04315.html

I'm embarrassed to say we used to do something called the fainting game when we were kids.

[sanityslipping]

How in the hell does something like this get started and become a fad?

I don't think I trust anyone enough to play this little game with them, the people that would be willing to play (and not use it as an excuse to "accidentally" kill me) would probably be too ignorant to know when is enough, or what to do in case of an emergency.

[Alf]

I don't know. I have japed before about dinosaurs dying and the Internet becoming ubiquitous in my lifetime; truth be told, 50 is coming faster than I like to think about.

Kids were playing the "fainting game" when I was in seventh and eighth grade. What that amounted to was hyperventilation, then hold your last full breath and blow -- and out go the lights. I was not aware of anybody playing the "choking game" when I was in high school, but my memory says the signs of these shenanigans were there and plainly visible. Which is not to say they were. My memory may be colored by the former classmate that died of autoerotic asphyxiation the summer after he graduated from high school.

--Al

[Misskittychaos]

I am 25 and it was pretty old hat to alot of the "ravers" I knew. I myself never found it to be something I wanted to do. The whole idea of cutting off your air supply for a very very very short "high" seemed stupid to me.

[thebooblady]

I remember when I first heard about this I couldn't believe kids would do this, but then I remembered in elementary school there were kids that did this. One child would do it to the other and catch them when the fell. And when I used ecstasy, we used to slowly..I guess you could say choke but we didn't actually cut off anyone's air supply, as the person "huffed" Vicks. I feel like an idiot knowing I did that and admitting it.....