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Last updated on Thursday, September 26, 2013
(DUBOIS CO.) - Jasper High School officials are concerned about a dangerous new trend involving students eating extremely hot peppers.
WFIE reports, apparently some students are taking the Ghost Pepper challenge biting into what's called the second hottest pepper on the planet.
Students across the country, including those at Jasper High School, are challenging each other to consume products like a very hot Ghost Pepper Salsa. It has turned the lunch period into a headache for the school nurse.
Last week, Jasper school nurse Jamie Hutton sent out a newsletter to parents telling them some students have been bringing sauces, containing Ghost Peppers, to school.
Hutton says there have been a few cases of students consuming these sauces, resulting in the need to contact poison control.
The Ghost Pepper registers an astounding 855,000 to 1.5 million scoville heat units. Hutton says it can severely damage the stomach and esophagus.
A quick search of the challenge on Youtube yields several videos taken of people attempting to eat a Ghost Pepper and it seems some Tri-State students are following the trend.
"My initial thoughts were, I was surprised anybody would be allowed to bring it to school, but I think it was handled very well. I think that for the safety of the kids, we need to keep things like that away from school, just because of allergies and other things. It could've gone dramatically wrong. Fortunately, Jasper handled it very well and made sure that everybody was safe," said Jasper High parent Mary Siegel.
We reached out to Jasper High School officials who declined to comment on the situation.
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