School warning: What parents need to know about the 'eraser challenge'

MSN / Today ^ | March 10, 2017

[SMGFan]

The "eraser challenge" been around for years, but now the potentially-harmful kids' "game" is getting new attention as it continues to pop up on social media and intrigue more children. East Iredell Middle School in Statesville, North Carolina, this month warned parents about the trend, noting several students have gotten hurt after taking part in the dare.

[SMGFan]

What is wrong with these kids? I recall the cinnamon challenge a few years ago..

[ClearCase_guy]

Sounds like an IQ test. Sounds like a lot of kids are failing the test.

[proxy_user]

If it’s something bad, then 10 and 11 year-olds are bound to try it. It only get worse.

[Celerity]

When I was in school we used to do this with 35mm film.

OOOooooo that hurt.

[Chipper]

There was no internet 30 years ago and I remember this happening then.

[cherry]

I think the “eraser game” when I was a kid in Catholic school was the nun letting us put the blackboard erasers on our heads and go up and down the aisle and see who can do it the fastest without dropping the eraser...

[JimSEA]

No worse than mumblety-peg which was popular in my youth sixty years ago when everyone had a pocket knife we took with us everywhere including school.

[Chainmail]

Young men never change. There’s always a really stupid phase we go through that if we’re really lucky, we live through it.

The idiocy in vogue when I was a young Marine was laying a lit cigarette between two guy’s arms and then razz the guy who pulled away first.

A lot of deep, ugly burns and uglier scars.

Testosterone makes us stupid.

[heterosupremacist]

From the article: "I thought it was the stupidest thing I've ever heard in my life," another parent told WDAF-TV in Kansas City. A middle school in the area warned families about the "eraser challenge" last year after noticing students sporting the tell-tale skin abrasions. Dr. Wendy Sue Swanson, a Seattle pediatrician who writes the Seattle Mama Doc blog, wasn't that surprised children are engaging in the challenge. "These are kids acting like kids," Swanson told TODAY. "It seems like there's this bravado in it, there's this easy accessibility... when you're thinking about the social dynamics of children trying to belong, trying to get attention and show strength, it isn't that surprising." When I was a kid in grade school, we had what was known as the 'punk test' ~ we would scrape a dime up and down the backside of our hand (hundreds of times) until it bled ~ the more blood, and the ugliest scar was meant as a warning to our peers. "don't wanna mess with me, I ain't no punk!" Of course, the guys who refused the challenge were considered to be punks... I still have the scar to prove it! HA!

[sharkhawk]

Oh no the little one are getting abrasions or cuts. I don’t think we had a recess in grade school where someone didn’t scrape a knee, or get a cut or something

[Jamestown1630]

“Testosterone makes us stupid.”

No more stupid than estrogen often makes us :-)

[HollyB]

We did something similar 40 years ago.

[bgill]

In 3rd grade, we’d give ourselves hickies on our arms. Mrs. Desmuke put a stop to that by making the offenders sit in front of the class. That was back in the day when minor punishments meant something.

[BobL]

If you tell the ‘teachers’ in the public schools that being ‘erased’ has NOTHING TO DO with being gay or transgender, they won’t have any issue supporting it.

[Jonty30]

When I was a kid, we used a lighter to do this sort of thing. Kids are soft.

[heterosupremacist]

# 7 The highly dangerous "Chicken" variant is the opposite of "Stretch." Here, one player bets the other how many sticks he will allow the other to make between his feet. The betting player then stands with his feet as far apart as possible and the other player throws his knife into the gap between them. If the knife sticks, the betting player moves whichever foot is closer to the knife to where the knife stuck. Therefore hitting as close to the center as possible is desirable to make the opponent's feet come close to each other with the least number of throws. The process repeats until either the agreed-upon number of sticks has been accomplished (betting player wins), either player refuses to go any further (whichever player did not "chicken out" wins), or the knife hits the betting player (betting player wins). or the knife hits the betting player (betting player wins). The last time I played 'chicken' was with my brother - on his first throw - he impaled a nine inch paring knife into my knee bone, and he said, "What are you talking about, YOU won!" We always remember things like these...

[bigbob]

Whiteboard or blackboard erasers? Because rassist...

[Maceman]

What is wrong with these kids? I recall the cinnamon challenge a few years ago.

Say what you want about Glozell, but her cinammon challenge video always makes me laugh.

Glozell cinammon challenge

Her hot pepper challenge cracks me up even more.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

"Kids are rubbing an eraser across their skin while having to do or say something. It's causing serious burns,"

Who needs an eraser? Just give your buddy an Indian Rub Burn. No equipment required.

[Jamestown1630]

Kids are always going to do silly stuff like this.

But I wonder how much of it escalates and becomes dangerous, because so many kids these days aren’t given any real responsibility to take on tasks, complete them, and gain self esteem by doing so?

In the ‘old days’ even the youngest kids in a household had responsibilities, duties, which were expected of them as soon as they were old enough to accomplish them. Through this, they learned pride in accomplishment, and a sense of self-worth.

We don’t have those ‘coming of age’ things anymore - many kids are either too coddled, or are in such disorganized and direction-less households that they never go through the experience of gaining self-worth through accomplishment.

A healthy kid who has achieved respect from his parents through his performance within the family is far less likely to be dragged into a need to ‘prove’ himself in ways that escalate into possibly very dangerous paths.