At least two Westlock high-school students have been disciplined and many more cautioned about taking part in an online drinking game.
R.F. Staples principal Pierre Ouimet said that earlier this month, about a dozen of his students posted videos online showing them taking part in the “neknomination” game.
“It’s a game where you’re challenged by somebody to consume alcohol —lots of it, maybe — in a short period of time, videotape it, and post the video to prove that you did it,” he said. “In doing it, you challenge one or more people to outdo you or one-up you.”
High school students drinking and posting it online is one thing, but what troubled Ouimet the most was seeing videos of two students doing it on school property.
“The two young men who were involved have been disciplined, and they seemed pretty remorseful because I was not happy,” he said.
He had not heard of the game until Tuesday, Feb. 11, when a staff member asked if he knew anything about it. That night he was contact by several other staff members concerns about its recent prevalence in social media circles.
Looking into it further, Ouimet said he found that about 100 people in this community had posted videos of them participating in the game.
That night on the news, he saw a story about deaths in the U.K. that have been associated with the event and he decided he had to act.
“My mind immediately went to, what if one of my high school guys or girls participated in this and did something silly like this guy?” he said.
He called an assembly for high school students the next morning to raise the issue and voice his concerns — both for student safety and the school’s good name.
“If you’re going to choose to do that and run the name of the school, where I come to work in and all the staff members in this gym come to work every day, as part of your drinking game and post it publicly, be well warned,” he said.
Ouimet said he believes most of the students got the message “loud and clear.”
While anyone who has been in high school in the last 50 or more years can tell you that underage drinking isn’t new, the social media technology now available gives it an extra dimension and can get thousands of people worldwide involved with surprising speed.
“I’m somewhat surprised, but not shocked,” Ouimet said.
Jack Adkins, an addictions councillor with Alberta Health Services, said like any other drinking game that kids get involved in, there are very real and very serious risks associated with neknomination.
“You get that competitiveness to it, and you have to remember that when you drink that much alcohol in a short period of time, that can cause alcohol poisoning which can kill you,” he said.
And despite what we often heard about hard drugs like crack and meth, the vast majority of addictions problems can be traced back to alcohol as one of the first drugs people get into — and it’s cultural prevalence is testament to that.
“Alcohol is still the drug,” he said. “It seems to be more socially accepted, and for young people it’s very accessible. It’s one of the first drugs young people experiment with.”
While some people drink casually and it never becomes a problem for them, if it does become a problem for people it can destroy lives — both metaphorically and literally.
“The unfortunate thing is that young people are experimenting with a drug that can lead to addiction and cause these young people some problems,” Adkins said.
