A New Jersey school superintendent said a child recently died from a "choking game," where students seek euphoria by briefly stopping oxygen from reaching the brain, Fox News reported.
The victim, whose name and age have not been released, was a student in the Bernards Township School District in central New Jersey. Superintendent Nick Markarian sent a letter to parents earlier this week, encouraging them to talk to their children about the game, Fox News reported.
The game is also known as space monkey, the fainting game, or flatliner. Markarian's letter said the death was "one of the tragic losses of student life we have experienced this year."
"The early-adolescent brain does not process information in the same manner as an adult brain, and so children in this age group are not able to fully understand the serious consequences," he wrote.
Parents have been cooperative in the wake of the student's death, the district said. A spokeswoman declined to say when exactly the death occurred.
Current statistics on deaths caused by the choking game are unclear, WABC reported. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that the game was responsible for 82 deaths between 1995 and 2007.
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