ERIKS CAUSE INC
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Mission Statement
ALL KIDS ARE AT RISK ... The mission of Erik's Cause is to bring awareness about deadly pass out games (aka "the choking game") into the national spotlight so parents and children understand its true dangers and lives can be saved. We believe that non-graphic, skills-based prevention education is the most effective way to combat its rampant popularity. We encourage all schools to incorporate our non-graphic, skills-based training into their curriculum.
About This Cause
What is This? Pass-out activities (commonly known in the media as “the Choking Game”) have been around for generations. Studies indicate that kids experiment with this for non-sexual reasons (e.g., curiosity, peer pressure, the mistaken belief that it is safer than drugs) because they are unaware of the dangers. Easy access to hundreds of thousands of “how to play” videos on YouTube and other sites allow this activity to flourish, letting kids believe it is safe, without adequate education of its dangers. Kids have Many Names for this “Game” Including but Not Limited to: Airplaning. Blackout, Choking Game, Knockout Challenge, Fainting Game, Scarf Game, Pass-Out Challenge, Tap Out, and Space Monkey. This list continues to grow as kids come up with new names! Ways Kids “Play” The physical goal of this activity is to restrict cerebral blood flow to the point of nearly or actually passing out for a variety of reasons including curiosity, competition, dare, and/or to experience an altered state. This is accomplished by a variety of methods, the most popular being: • compression of the carotid arteries using hands or a ligature; • compression to the chest after hyperventilation; • competition or dare to see who can resist passing out the longest under a choke hold (e.g., tap-out or submission holds typically used in mixed martial arts). The Choking Game Differs from Other Risk Activities • Is not illegal and has no deterrent or legal consequence • Does not require acquisition of a product • Can be “played” alone • Difficulty in knowing when the damage occurs since it interrupts basic brain function Data is Limited • No public health databases currently monitor pass-out activities. • Youth are rarely forthcoming about the activity when injured. Thus practitioners may not be aware that pass out games are a possible cause for unexplained falls and other injuries. • Injuries are rarely attributed correctly and many deaths are misclassified as suicide. Did You Know … • A majority of kids surveyed have heard of these activities • Most of them know someone who has participated • 6 – 16% of kids surveyed admit that they have “played” it themselves o 90% of those who “played” learned it from their peers o A majority of these kids were unaware of the dangers Meanwhile… • 93% of parents are unaware of these pass-out activities • 33% of physicians are unaware of The Choking Game Erik Robinson is one such victim of the Choking Game Erik died in April 2010 at the age of 12 in Santa Monica just one day after he learned about it from a schoolmate at Lincoln Middle School. Erik’s family was ready to bear his blindsiding death in silence and shame despite police insistence that it was the Choking Game and not a suicide. They could not believe he would do something so ridiculous. Fortunately a classmate came forward and confirmed the truth, which is when they decided to take action. Thus began the journey called Erik’s Cause Because the brain is not fully developed until age 25, adolescents are prone to making impulsive choices without fully assessing the consequences of their intended actions. Developed using evidence-based best practices for prevention education, Erik’s Cause has created an exceptional non-graphic, skills-based training program addressing this issue in a way that does not make kids curious to try it. The training is flexible and easy to integrate into existing prevention curricula. The training provide students with tools to effectively resist peer pressure and empower them to make healthier choices by providing factual information and instilling common-theme strategies to help them avoid sticky situations. Parent education is an integral component, offering new ways to open dialogs with their children. By proactively educating students and parents, lives will be saved and families kept intact. The training: • Avoids material that could expose a school to potential liability • Avoids all graphic or explicit material • Minimizes risk of triggering an existing trauma • Provides factual information for students to make healthy choices • Includes refusal skills to help students act on those choices • Standardizes the material to allow for uniform, widespread replication by multiple presenters Iron County, Utah: The First in the Nation to Formally Implement the Erik’s Cause Training Between 2009 and 2013, Iron County, Utah reported ten adolescent deaths, four of which were due to the Choking Game. In the Spring of 2014, Iron County School District piloted the Erik’s Cause training with great success. Teachers said they found the training user-friendly and that the students were very receptive to the material. In the Fall of 2014, Iron County formally implemented the training into it’s Health curricula (5th, 7th and 10th grades) and is thrilled with its ongoing success. They serve as a model for other districts who are seeking to stem the tide of this epidemic. (A brief news segment showing Iron County’s roll-out is viewable at: https://goo.gl/AXBM5U.) We work with communities and school districts across the United States and internationally. The Los Angeles County Office of Education's Student Support Services Division considers us a resource for its 80+ public and charter school districts. In April, 2017 we were invited to present our data and training to the staff of SAMSHA's Center for Mental Health Services and it was well received. Please visit us at www.erikscause.org and contact us for more information.