The Skullbreaker Challenge is the newest challenge that could be putting young lives at risk. This latest TikTok challenge appears to have originated in South America, but schools and parents in the United States have just started warning others about it. The challenge could cause serious injuries, but it’s not clear just how prevalent it is. One parent in Arizona wrote in a social media post that their child was injured from the prank and a school in Missouri has warned that some students are participating in the challenge. Here’s what we know so far. This is a developing story.
1. The Challenge Appears To Have Originated in South America
YouTube
The Skullbreaker challenge appears to have originated in South America and is being talked about a lot in Europe, based on some of the earliest stories about the challenge. One of the early stories was posted by the Sun about four days ago and another was posted by Mirror.
A video of the challenge was posted on YouTube on February 4. The title, written in Spanish, reads: “Viral .!! Reto de moda en las escuelas.” It basically warns that this is a viral challenge happening in schools. The description reads: “Reto de moda en las escuelas esta causando fractura de cráneo y otras lesiones.” This description warns that the challenge is causing skull fractures and other injuries.
Stories from the Mirror and the Sun claim that police are warning about the game and a student in South America ended up in intensive care, but this has not been confirmed. In addition, the Mirror reported that police in Granada tweeted a warning about the game but then took that tweet down.
The challenge is called “Rompcráneos” in Spanish and it’s been circulating on TikTok and other places. The challenge involves three people standing side-by-side. The person in the middle jumps up high and the people on either side kick out the jumper’s legs before they can land. The jumper can end up hitting their head hard and have serious injuries as a result.
2. A School in Venezuela Has Been Tweeting About a Viral Video Involving Students Wearing the School’s Logo
Santo Tomas Aquino in Venezuela is the school where one of the first videos of the challenge appears to have originated. The school has issued several tweets about what happened.
The first tweet, roughly translated, reads: “Recently a video has become viral in social networks in which some high school students of our institution are shown making a game where presumably the health and physical integrity of one of the young people would be put at risk. In the aforementioned video, the badge of the College is clearly distinguished…”
The second tweet, roughly translated, reads: “Given the facts presented, the authorities of the College want to express to the Educational Community that, beyond the alarm that the events occurred may cause, we won’t lose the focus of fulfilling our role in the integral protection of the rights and interests of the boys, girls, and adolescents who are part of our institution, which is why preventive and corrective measures that must be applied will be carried out promptly and efficiently, for the benefit of our students as a priority and also to maintain the prestige of our school.”
The third tweet basically says that all parties involved were summoned to the Directorate to begin an investigation and a review of the legal repercussions.
On February 7, the school pinned the above tweet, which roughly translates to saying that because the video portrays a teen as a victim of an aggressive situation that could put the teen at risk. It says that relevant agencies and the Public Ministry are speaking to the school and the family. The situation is being investigated and punishments are still being determined.
This originated from an Instagram post, which you can read below.
The post, roughly translated, reads: “In Chacao, we say #NoBullying to the dangerous games that some teenagers are practicing in their schools. Our municipal system, for the protection of children and adolescents in Chacao, is resolving and punishing those who encourage bullying in schools. We urge parents, representatives and teachers to report these types of situations to the corresponding instances.”
The Chacao Municipality is a political and administrative subdivision of Caracas, Venezuela.
3. An Arizona Parent Shared a Public Facebook Post, Warning That Her Son Had Been Injured
On February 8, a parent in Arizona shared a public Facebook post warning that her son had been injured and sharing photos. Because the boy is a minor, Heavy is only sharing the text of her post and not the photos.
Valerie Hodson wrote: “I really contemplated posting this, but I feel there needs to be awareness of this malicious cruel viral prank. On Wednesday my son was asked to do a jumping contest with his 2 ‘friends’, when he jumped up, the 2 boys kicked him, as hard as they could, so his legs flew out in front of him. He landed hard flat on his back and head, as he struggled to get up he lost consciousness, he fell forward landing on his face. The school monitor ran to his side, all the while the 2 boys were snickering and laughing as his stiff unconscious body lay on the asphalt. Fast forward at the hospital, he has a head injury, stiches in his face, severe cuts inside his mouth and 2 front teeth I have to keep on eye on. This apparently is a Tik Tok viral prank being filmed and gaining likes on social media. This is not okay, and honestly if your kid believes this is just for fun, you have failed at being a parent.” [sic]
The post is quickly going viral. As of late Sunday night, it has 10,000 reactions and 5,000 comments and 16,000 shares.
4. A School in Missouri Posted a Warning About the Challenge & Said Some Students Had Been Taking Part in the Challenge
On Sunday, Winfield Intermediate, a school in Missouri, posted a warning about the challenge on its Facebook page. The warning linked to a story in The Sun.
The post reads, in part:
It has recently come to our attention that there is a potentially dangerous game being circulated through the social media app TikTok. Each of our teachers have discussed this with our students last week and we would certainly appreciate our families taking the time to discuss it wtih their children as well. In this challenge one person jumps in the air while two others kick the legs out from underneath the person in the air. We have not received any reports of injuries here at school but we do believe that some of our students have engaged in this challenge. I’ve included a link below that describes some of the serious injuries that have occured to children throughout the world when they have participated in this challenge. We greatly appreciate the parents that brought this challenge to our attention. In the future if you or your family becomes aware of any other potentially dangerous activities/challenges that could cause harm to our students we encourage you to reach out to the school so that we can assist in educating our young Warriors. As always please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or concerns.”
One commenter said that they saw this happen at the mall, but they didn’t realize it was a game.
5. More Families in the U.S. Are Warning About the Challenge
A family in Cherry Hill, New Jersey said their son was injured by the challenge, Fox 29 reported. Their 13-year-old son had a head injury and was taken to the hospital after trying to participate in the challenge. He has a severe concussion.
Another family in Miami, Florida warned about the challenge too, NBC Miami reported. The mom said her daughter was bullied into participating in the challenge at South Dade Senior High.
A William Dever Elementary School in Chicago, Illinois posted a warning on their website about the challenge.
In Pittsburgh, a sixth grader was hospitalized after taking part in the challenge, WPXI reported. WPXI said two students asked the injured student if she wanted to learn a dance that involved jumping at one point during the dance. When she jumped, the students kicked her legs out and slammed her legs to the ground. The school said the students were disciplined.
In Oregon, a Mountainside High School student was injured when she was asked to jump for a TikTok video and the “skullbreaker challenge” was done as a prank on her, Fox 12 Oregon reported.
This is a developing story.
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