You’ve got to give it up to the kids in Clovis. They know how to get in on the latest online challenges. And also how to get the attention of their school nurses.
A report last week said that the nursing staff in Clovis schools had suddenly been inundated with treating kids eating a new kind of hot chile flavored snack — Paqui.
Apparently it is a single corn chip slathered in Carolina Reaper and Scorpion pepper and then — just for the effect — sold in a coffin-shaped package for about $5. To entice people to try it, there has been a “One Chip Challenge.”
An e-mail was sent out by the Clovis schools urging parents to tell their kids not to participate in the challenge.
“As of Friday (Sept. 16), more than 20 students in our district have required medical intervention after either ingesting of touching One Chip Challenge Chips,” the school memo said.
Some of you may remember that when Flamin’ Hot Cheetos were first introduced, many kids became semi addicted to them. In fact, a health official in an unidentified New Mexico school district sent out an impassioned warning to parents saying kids should avoid the snack. She mentioned that the snack could cause health problems from eating such a spicy food, gave a warning that germs could be spread by kids sharing the Cheetos and raised the issue of how much trouble it was to scrub off sticky red fingerprints on school desks and tables. Another school district in Illinois completely banned them.
My thought is that if incredibly spicy foods made from chiles entice people to participate in goofy challenges, why can’t we create our own New Mexico hot chile challenge? I mean, we are the chile capitol of the world, right? I know our own New Mexico State University has done research on the incredibly hot “ghost chile” or bhut jolokia. So why not challenge people to each so much of it that they hallucinate and start seeing ghosts?
Okay, bad idea. Someone will probably try that and I’ll get blamed for it. And then I’ll have to clean up all those smudged red fingerprints on water glasses and on their cell phone screens when they had to call an EMS team.
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