School Officials Concerned About Self-Mutilating ‘Eraser Challenge’ Have Clearly Never Met Idiot Kids Before

I get that parents need to be informed, but sometimes I am so eye-rolly about the supposed dangerous trends that kids are coming up with these days. NEWSFLASH, parents: Unless you have 100% blocked out your own childhood, we have all done these stupid things before. Kids been doing stupid things since the dawn of time, which is why this latest “eraser challenge” outbreak should come as no surprise.

According to administrators at a Connecticut middle school, the Eraser Challenge is a widespread, “troubling” activity that parents need to watch out for as it causes students to intentionally self-injure. The issue was described in a letter sent home to parents as:

“Kids take an eraser and begin ”˜erasing’ their skin while saying the alphabet and coming up with a word for each letter”¦Once they get to the letter Z, they stop and then compare the injury to their friends.”

So, these crazy kids are erasing off their skin and sharing erasers””which means that they are potentially swapping bodily fluids via erasers used in the challenge. While it is certainly not the best idea to erase off skin and share bodily fluids, I have yet to be shocked by this challenge.

To me, this is entirely typical of bored, experimental kids in school. To be honest, it’s actually on the tame side of many of the activities that my friends and I came up with to pass the time in class. Examples include homemade “tattoos” from ink and staples, attempted piercings, and drawing all over our bodies (which upset teachers at the time for the potential of “ink poisoning”).

The Eraser Challenge has been around for some time thanks to YouTube, but Bethel Middle School considers this a new outbreak. Administrators should certainly keep an eye on kids mutilating themselves in class and warn parents of the goings-on. But parents shouldn’t be surprised when their kids try any stupid trend they find on the Internet.

I can guarantee you that I would have 100% done this Eraser Challenge if someone came up with it while I was in middle school.

(Image: Christin Gasner/Shutterstock)