Thursday September 28, 2023, high school students at Raynouard high school in Brignoles and their parents received a message from the establishment: a student was hospitalized. The reason ? She was a victim of the “comma game”, the latest playground fad. “The high school learned the hospitalization of a student following the ‘comma game’. It seems that this challenge, particularly traumatic at the cervical level, is fashionable in the high school and neighboring colleges. Given the seriousness of the medical consequences, the sanctions against the perpetrators of this unacceptable action will be severe.”reports the local daily nice morningwho questioned the principal. This is the second medical treatment recorded in France: the first took place within the Bordeaux academy.
A risk for the cervical spine
Although it seems good-natured, the comma game presents many risks. Dangers to which many educational establishments across France have been alerted. Indeed, the challenge is to suddenly grabbing a friend’s head by surprise and shaking it in all directionsas can be seen on TikTok. A dangerous game inspired by the comma in football, which is played with the feet. Many sudden blows followed, which can damage the cervical. A college located in the commune of Angresse, in the Landes, reported a case to the Bordeaux academy on Saturday September 16, 2023, the radio then reported France Blue. On September 26, 2023, The Telegram reported that several students had been sanctioned in the Breton college of Brocéliande de Guer, in Morbihan. But on social networks, videos of “commas” are multiplying.
A call for “reinforced vigilance”
The Ministry of National Education assured, with BFMTV, that “necessary steps have been taken to attract the attention of management personnel”. “To date, management is carried out as close as possible to the field by the academic director of national education services”, he specifies. During this time, all the heads of the Rennes academy received a note from the rectorate requesting a “reinforced vigilance”. At the national level, no measures have yet been decreed. The objective is to put an end to the practice without spreading it among students curious to try this game.