LOCAL NEWS PAPER ARTICLES / LEO'S MOM HELP TO STOP THIS GAME
Students kicked off team after teaching players the 'choking game'
Last Updated: Wednesday, January 30, 2008 | 10:33 AM AT
CBC News
Two boys on a New Brunswick high school basketball team have been kicked off the team after teaching younger players how to create a feeling of euphoria by cutting off the flow of blood to the brain.
The boys' basketball team from Harvey Station, about 50 kilometres southwest of Fredericton, was on an overnight trip to Grand Manan Island on Jan. 25 when two of the older boys on the team showed some younger players how to play the "choking game."
The so-called game involves restricting the flow of blood and oxygen to the brain to create a feeling of lightheadedness followed by a momentary euphoric rush before passing out.
Two older Harvey High School basketball players went to the hotel room of younger players on Friday night and asked their teammates if they wanted to learn the game.
A player's mother who accompanied the team on the trip learned about the incident the next day.
"I found out about it through a conversation … on the ferry on the way back across," said Shari Gillespie, who is also an assistant coach for Harvey's girls' basketball team.
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"The boys kind of were downplaying it and joking about it like it was something, you know, just fun and cool," Gillespie told CBC News. "I was quite shocked."
Two players were kicked off the team because of the incident. One of them has also been suspended from school.
Students accuse school of overreacting
School officials say they are planning more disciplinary action for the students involved in the incident.
"I was sort of astounded that first of all it would happen," said school principal David MacMullin.
MacMullin said he was also surprised to find that the students involved felt he was overreacting about the incident.
"They didn't have a level of knowledge that they should have had," MacMullin said.
Self-asphyxiation is practiced mostly by children between the ages of nine and 16. Also known as the fainting game, it can cause serious brain injury or even death.
A handful of deaths in Canada have been attributed to it since 2001, including those of a nine-year-old Albertan, Kalib Bryant; an Ontario boy, Jesse Grant, 12; and Nova Scotian teen Jesse Daviau.
The total number of deaths linked to the game are difficult to pinpoint because when children start trying to get the high alone — often using belts, bed sheets, shoelaces or electrical cords — they can appear to be suicides.
"I think parents really need to be informed that this isn't just some little prank or joke that the kids are doing with one another," Gillespie said. "It can become addictive, and there can certainly be terrible consequences that can come out of it."
Harvey High School is preparing an information sheet to send to parents with the report cards that will be sent home next week.
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Canada FeThe boys kind of were downplaying it and joking about it like it was something, you know, just fun and cool," Gillespie told CBC News. "I was quite shocked."
Two players were kicked off the team because of the incident. One of them has also been suspended from school.
Students accuse school of overreacting
School officials say they are planning more disciplinary action for the students involved in the incident.
"I was sort of astounded that first of all it would happen," said school principal David MacMullin.
MacMullin said he was also surprised to find that the students involved felt he was overreacting about the incident.
"They didn't have a level of knowledge that they should have had," MacMullin said.
Self-asphyxiation is practiced mostly by children between the ages of nine and 16. Also known as the fainting game, it can cause serious brain injury or even death.
A handful of deaths in Canada have been attributed to it since 2001, including those of a nine-year-old Albertan, Kalib Bryant; an Ontario boy, Jesse Grant, 12; and Nova Scotian teen Jesse Daviau.
The total number of deaths linked to the game are difficult to pinpoint because when children start trying to get the high alone — often using belts, bed sheets, shoelaces or electrical cords — they can appear to be suicides.
"I think parents really need to be informed that this isn't just some little prank or joke that the kids are doing with one another," Gillespie said. "It can become addictive, and there can certainly be terrible consequences that can come out of it."
Harvey High School is preparing an information sheet to send to parents with the report cards that will be sent home next week.
atures
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JENNIFER DUNVILLE
Canadaeast news service
Published Thursday January 31st, 2008
Appeared on page A2
Rose McPhee's nightmare began the moment she heard her husband scream in their yard.
Her youngest child, Leo, was found in their barn with a chain around his neck.
"I ran outside and we both tried to revive him," McPhee said. "I kept thinking, 'He's going to make it, he's going to make it,' but he died that day. It was March 21, 2006."
McPhee's community in Saint John believed her son's death was a suicide, but she knew better.
Leo was a bright kid with lots of friends and lots of potential.
He wasn't suicidal and the coroner's report confirmed it.
The 16-year-old's death was deemed accidental - a result of the choking game.
Less than a week after his funeral, Leo's friends came forward and admitted they had been playing the game.
"I noticed a few days before he died that he had eye drops in his pocket for getting rid of redness, so I asked him if he was doing drugs," McPhee said. "He shrugged it off and said it was from a game called Space Monkey. I didn't question him further, but I wish now that I had."
The choking game has had many different names over the decades, but the idea is the same.
It involves cutting off the flow of blood and oxygen to the brain for a momentary euphoric rush before falling unconscious.
It's something Andrew Wood thought he'd never see in the small community of Harvey.
But last weekend, Wood and his wife received a terrifying phone call.
"We were told our son had participated in this so-called game," Wood said. "Our first thought was that he might have injured his neck by letting another kid put enough force on it to starve his brain of blood and oxygen. Fortunately, he seems to be fine."
Wood's 14-year-old son was in Grand Manan with the Harvey Station boys' basketball team when two Grade 12 students offered to teach four Grade 9 students how to play the choking game.
Wood's son passed out, but wasn't injured.
They were found after the girls' basketball team, which was staying in the same hotel, alerted an adult to the activity.
"They were lucky that it was found before anyone was killed," said Sharron Grant, an Ontario mom whose 12-year-old son died from self-asphyxiation in 2005. "One in five Canadian children play this game and I know of more than 30 who have died in Canada and about 250 in the United States just this year. It's hard to nail down because so many are reported as suicides."
Grant is part of a group that's trying to encourage more parents and schools to talk to adolescents about the dangers of the choking game.
She's been working with medical examiners, family support groups and researchers to compile statistics and publish information on the game.
"These kids could fall unconscious and hurt their faces or break their arms," she said. "They could suffer serious brain damage, stroke-like symptoms, long-term memory loss and even death. It kills brain cells. It's a very serious problem."
Wood said he and his family have researched the negative effects of the game since the incident with the basketball team.
It's been an emotional time for them.
"When we realized how much worse it could've been - well, it's been tough to think about," Wood said. "My son realizes now how dangerous this was, but I think at first he just thought we were overreacting."
Grant said many children who try the game think it's risk-free.
They feel invincible and are too young to think twice about the consequences, she said.
"I was one of those parents who thought my child was too smart to do something so stupid," Grant said. "How wrong I was. We found Jessie in his room with the cord from his computer wrapped around his neck. Our little boy was dead."
For McPhee and Grant, the pain of losing a child will never go away, but both said they are hoping the game will.
"If I could look into the face of those kids from Harvey, I'd tell them to grow up," McPhee said. "It may be called a game, but it isn't. It's toying with death. And it has to stop."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By JENNIFER DUNVILLE
dunville.jennifer@dailygleaner.com
Published Thursday January 31st, 2008
Appeared on page A1
Rose McPhee's nightmare began the moment she heard her husband scream in their yard.
Her youngest child, Leo, was found in their barn with a chain around his neck.
"I ran outside and we both tried to revive him," McPhee said.
"I kept thinking, 'He's going to make it, he's going to make it,' but he died that day. It was March 21, 2006."
McPhee's community in Saint John believed her son's death was a suicide, but she knew better.
Leo was a bright kid with lots of friends and lots of potential.
He wasn't suicidal and the coroner's report confirmed it.
The 16-year-old's death was deemed accidental -- a result of the choking game.
Less than a week after his funeral, Leo's friends came forward and admitted they had been playing the game.
"I noticed a few days before he died that he had eye drops in his pocket for getting rid of redness, so I asked him if he was doing drugs," McPhee said.
"He shrugged it off and said it was from a game called Space Monkey. I didn't question him further, but I wish now that I had."
The choking game has had many different names over the decades, but the idea is the same.
It involves cutting off the flow of blood and oxygen to the brain for a momentary euphoric rush before falling unconscious. It's something Andrew Wood thought he'd never see in the small community of Harvey.
But last weekend, Wood and his wife received a terrifying phone call.
"We were told our son had participated in this so-called game," Wood said.
"Our first thought was that he might have injured his neck by letting another kid put enough force on it to starve his brain of blood and oxygen. Fortunately, he seems to be fine."
Wood's 14-year-old son was in Grand Manan with the Harvey Station boys' basketball team when two Grade 12 students offered to teach four Grade 9 students how to play the choking game.
Wood's son passed out, but wasn't injured.
They were found after the girls' basketball team, which was staying in the same hotel, alerted an adult to the activity.
"They were lucky that it was found before anyone was killed," said Sharron Grant, an Ontario mom whose 12-year-old son died from self-asphyxiation in 2005. "One in five Canadian children play this game and I know of more than 30 who have died in Canada and about 250 in the United States just this year. It's hard to nail down because so many are reported as suicides."
Grant is part of a group that's trying to encourage more parents and schools to talk to adolescents about the dangers of the choking game.
She's been working with medical examiners, family support groups and researchers to compile statistics and publish information on the game.
"These kids could fall unconscious and hurt their faces or break their arms," Grant said. "They could suffer serious brain damage, stroke-like symptoms, long-term memory loss and even death. It kills brain cells. It's a very serious problem."
Wood said he and his family have researched the negative effects of the game since the incident with the basketball team.
It's been an emotional time for them.
"When we realized how much worse it could've been -- well, it's been tough to think about," Wood said. "My son realizes now how dangerous this was, but I think at first he just thought we were overreacting."
Grant said many children who try the game think it's risk-free.
They feel invincible and are too young to think twice about the consequences, she said.
"I was one of those parents who thought my child was too smart to do something so stupid," Grant said. "How wrong I was. We found Jesse in his room with the cord from his computer wrapped around his neck. Our little boy was dead."
For McPhee and Grant, the pain of losing a child will never go away, but both said they are hoping the game will.
"If I could look into the faces of those kids from Harvey, I'd tell them to grow up," McPhee said.
"It may be called a game, but it isn't. It's toying with death. And it has to stop."
please help to sop this game the kids need to know it could kill them,LEO I AM SORRY I DID NOT SEE THE SIGN I WAS TO LATE ANOTHER PARENT MAY BE ABLE TO SAVE THEIR CHILD WITH ALL OUR HELP ,THANK YOU 
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Tributes and Condolences
Hi, strangest thing happened this morning...I woke up & clicked on youtube..a video poped on it was about "tribute to the boys in red" really didn't know what it was so I watched(since it was sent to me some weird way like from above) & OMG I cried & cried & cried...I realized it was the boys from NB Canada that you lost.. & MY whole body started to shake & I had goose bumps...it was so sad I have two brothers that age & one has a really strong resemblence to one of the boys who passed. It hit me these are the boys Rose was talking about! They are beautiful angels now! with Leo, Jamie, Mark & Luke & so many others...but such a tragedy. When will it ever end. The hurt the pain the tears..I guess never & we have to learn to live with the hand we were dealt. But it seems so unfair. God keeps taking all the best. We are becoming out numbered by evil. I want to tell you how sorry we are for all who love these boys...its so hard in multiple #s..Its hard enough when its one but the mutiple #s at once is even worse.. Y Y Y only God knows Y! Rose we think of you alot (Pam too) it's just been hard to come to the sites. Hope you understand...we still pray for the boys everyday & we love you guys too. Please always remember that. The tributes on youtube to the boys are beautiful there are many. I sent my love to them one the sites & Im so sorry that you indore more pain once again...Glad you have a new little God Baby...a nice blessing from Heaven! & Leo is with you NEVER 4GET THAT....
THE JERSEY GIRLS 4EVER 
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