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Teen Aim to Get High Turns Fatal: Boy, 13, May Have Died Playing `Choking Game'

Posted on: Wednesday, 29 March 2006, 12:00 CST

By Marilyn Miller, The Akron Beacon Journal, Ohio

Mar. 29--Thirteen-year-old Robert Schoolcraft III of Springfield Township loved the outdoors.

Robert was adventurous -- and he was curious. "He liked taking things apart and putting them back together again," said his grandfather, Ronald Achberger.

He was a typical teen, but his curiosity may have been part of a deadly trend.

Summit County authorities believe the teen's death last week may have been an accident, the result of playing what's known as the "choking game."

Youths use hands, arms, ropes or belts to cut oxygen to the brain so they pass out for a quick high.

Springfield Township police and the medical examiner's office are still investigating the March 21 death, but preliminary results indicate Robert died of asphyxia by hanging, an accidental death.

His family wants to warn others of the danger.

"We don't want Robert's death to be in vain," Achberger said. "We can't let it stop here."

At bedtime on March 21, Robert grabbed a drink of water and reminded his mother not to forget to wake him for school the next day at Spring Hill Junior High School, his grandfather said.

That next morning his mother found him limp and unresponsive with a T-shirt and a chain around his neck.

The family was in disbelief. "We never even heard of anything like this," Achberger said.

He said there was nothing there to indicate he was upset over anything and would take his life on purpose.

"Teenagers are always risk takers and thrill seekers," said Springfield Township Police Capt. Garry Moneypenny. "It's also called the passing-out game, the fainting game or tingling game. The bottom line is that it's not a game, it's suffocation roulette."

Achberger said the family had no idea Robert was trying to get high. Authorities said previous bruises indicated he might have played the game before.

According to www.chokinggamereport.com, 187 children have died this way since 1972. The ages are primarily those who are 11 to 16. The site states there may have been more deaths that could have been mistaken as suicides.

"The big difference between suicides and the choking game is that suicide is no accident and in the choking game, the person doesn't intend to take their own life," said investigator Pat Gillespie of the Summit County medical examiner's office. "You have to look for any signs of previous attempts of suicide or if the person is depressed or despondent."

He noted the difference in choking game deaths from autoerotic asphyxiation -- which is similar, but more of a sexual nature.

Gillespie could recall only one other recorded choking-game fatality in Summit County, last year's death in Clinton of 16-year-old Jeffrey D. Patton. His parents, Tricia and Dennis Patton of Canal Fulton, now try to warn others.

"We spoke out because it was something new and no one knew anything about it -- because it was so unusual and bizarre and only a handful of known cases," Tricia Patton said Tuesday.

In their case, "we were lucky that we knew what it was because his friends had seen him do it a few times before," she said. "If not I think it could have easily been ruled a suicide."

She came to learn there's no specific pattern for potential victims. "It could happen to any well-adjusted kid with a stable background who has everything going for them," she said. "It's not just the troubled kids doing this."

Both families said if the young boys' deaths had been related to drugs or alcohol they would have known how to deal with the problem, but this was something foreign to them.

Moneypenny said the best way to fight the deadly trend is to learn and share information as much as possible.

He said parents should watch for bloodshot eyes or bruises on the neck, or complaints about headaches. They should be concerned if the child spends time alone behind locked bedroom doors and comes out disoriented.

"I respect the family and admire their courage for wanting to get the word out," Moneypenny said. "Most families tend to keep quiet at times like this. Hopefully their message will save the lives of others."

Marilyn Miller can be reached at 330-996-3098 or 800-777-7232 or mmiller@thebeaconjournal.com

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Akron Beacon Journal, Ohio

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Source: Akron Beacon Journal (Akron, Ohio)

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