TampaBay.com
An 11-year-old St. Petersburg girl died at her home last week while playing what is called the choking game, or suffocation roulette.
Deneathia Service died on June 15 after tying a belt around her neck in a dangerous game that activists say gives children a high and is being played by adolescents in the United States, Canada and other areas of the world.
According to a police report, the girl, a student at Gulfport Elementary Montessori School, was playing the game with her 5-year-old sister, Cyneathia, after church. Her mother had left the house to pick up a relative and get pizza for dinner. Her 12-year-old brother found her, police said, with a belt around her neck. The brother cut the belt with a steak knife, but Deneathia showed no signs of life.
The girl’s family has declined to comment.
Choking game? WTF! This is really sad. Why are kids playing games like this? I never heard of such a thing when I was a kid.
Found by MJ.
Probably just Mr. Mustard in the library with a candlestick, again.
Lack of parenting.
This has been going on for a few years but yea it is a cheap high that results from parents not being around.
A typical game played by kids… I remember a variation of it when I was young. Basically, while leaning back against a wall you took a deep breath and held it. Then, you’re “friend” would push against your chest until you passed out. I know kids that take their snowboards into terrain parks and do half-pipes, flips, stands, 720’s and crazy shit like that! When I board, I may hit a couple of jumps, but nothing like them crazy kids…
Sounds only slightly more dangerous than the pass out game we played as kids.
Breath in and out deeply as quickly as you can. When you start to feel dizzy, then close your eyes and spin around as fast as you can.
Do the above in a large grassy area with soft dirt and nothing to fall on cause you’re going down.
Cheap thrills. Parents can’t stop it once the kiddies know about it.
A quicker version of unprotected sex.
I feel sorry for the girl’s family.
I know I’m going to get ripped for this one, but, this is simple Darwinism at it’s finest.
As George Carlin used to say, God rest his soul, “the kid who eats too many marbles doesn’t get to grow up to to have kids of his own.”
“The Choking Game” has been around for years. It’s just another example of kids finding anything and everything to “alter their perception”.
This is why drugs ought to be legalized. At least if the kids were to smoke a joint they’d be too lazy to do this type of stuff. Then again, they’d still be too young to legally acquire the weed. Maybe we just ought to bite the bullet and lower the legal age to 10.
After all, it’s OK, since we’re “doing it for the children,” right?
Hint: legalize marijuana. Deaths? Zero.
Reminds me of this:
http://www.southparkstudios.com/episodes/164823/
Umm. I’m all for living longer, because I like it. That being said, we all tend to die before we imagined. This affects the rest of the world how?
#10 Yep, the whole thing is described in the cartoon. Kids see it in Southpark and now they’re dead…
This is so rare. There are 1,000 x more deaths due to alcohol & skateboards, and 10,000 x more due to pill pushing by your local doctor and TV drug ad.
I remember crap like this from when I was a kid. (I’m in my 40’s) I really don’t think kids that age have a clue. Its more experimental, and they don’t really know any better.
When I was growing up putting something around someones neck for any reason risked you getting a good beating. Even if it was just for ‘play’ or ‘pretend’
So who got her share of the pizza?
Very sad.
Hmm, so do we need warning labels on belts?
Maybe the 5 year old had it in for her?
Darwin was right.
Don
Natural selection at work!
This tragic event is not due to lack of parenting or the parents being gone it can happen to any parent at anytime. My son became an angel to this game in July 2007, while playing in the backyard with his family at home. The tragedy is that children know about this activity but the parents do not and those of us “Angel Parents” out there can only reach so many people. I hope that other parents will not have to find this out the way that my family and other families worldwide have. Most parents don’t follow their children into the bedroom or out in the backyard to play after they reach the age of about 10. Try to keep this in mind and I hope those of you who believe that the parents are to blame will never have to experience this. As a parent to an “angel” I place enough blame on myself without anyone doing it for me and I would never wish for anyone to have to go through that kind of pain.
Mom of “Angel Dylan”
I’m 27 now, but when I was yonger, about 10 or 11, I did this…
it wasn’t until later I learned I had an auto-asphyxiation disorder. It’s an addiction and it’s horrable… took me over a year to get a handle on it.
Angel Mom,
I’m sorry for the death of your child; I’m sure it’s difficult to cope with, but what’s with all the angel stuff?
I’m sure it probably makes you feel better to think that he’s now an angel but have you ever thought about the thoughts that this could put into a kids head, especially if a parent goes on and on about angel this and angel that.
You take a kid that is looking to please his parents and he may think that they would finally get their approval if he killed himself and became an “angel”. I hope you don’t have other kids, because you going on about how your son is now an angel may put the idea in their mind that they only way they can get your approval/love is to become an angel too.
So ease up on the angel bit. Mourn your loss, but love and take comfort in those you have around you. Don’t obsess about how your lost one is now an angel because who knows what child will hear you and take your words to heart.
Angel Mom,
With all your self pity you may have overlooked a significant reason for your child’s death. By calling him an “angel” implies that you taught him christianity. That promise of a place in heaven might have reduced any fear of death and the natural self preservation instinct.
If your “god” took him, then I guess that must have been “god’s” plan.
If he took his own life on purpose, then where was “god” to look after his children.
If “god” didn’t want him to “come home” then why would “god” have allowed this to happen?
Gee, that “god” guy is either a pretty mean sadistic dude or very uncaring about what he does with those he “loves”. Sure am glad he is not my “god”.
I call my son an “Angel” because I do not like saying or thinking “DEAD”, BUT I DO KNOW THE DIFFERENCE AND YES HE HAD NO FEAR HE WAS A 12 YEAR OLD BOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Angel Mom,
Then you are the one in denial.
I too have lost a child, to a drunk driver who walked away without a scratch. I admit it though, my son is dead. I knew it within minutes of the accident. All of five years old and ripped open like a gutted deer.
That was 21 years ago. Yes, I still think of him. I think of the times I didn’t get. I can’t play catch. I can’t race him on our bikes. I can’t teach him to drive.
But he is dead and I have moved on. I realize it is my own selfish anger with my not playing with him that hurts. He just isn’t coming back. And I know he isn’t in “heaven” with the angels. What is left of him is still moldering away, returning back to the soil from which all our atoms and molecules sprang.
The difference here is that he was a passive passenger, not someone trying something even a 12 y/o knows is dangerous.
There was nothing you, as a parent, could do to stop it. There is nothing you as a parent can do to bring him back. Let him be and go on with YOUR life.
And to think the worst thing I did as a kid was take a baseball bat, place one end on the ground, run around it as fast as I could, then try to run across the yard in a straight line. hilarity ensued.
My heart goes out to the family. Kids are just that kids, unpredictable and often impulsive.
And to all you Darwinism thinkers- have you never sped in your cars…isn’t that taking a risk with a consequence that you think you can control?
These kids are taking risk but think they can control it – they do not see it as fatal activity.