WEST MILTON, OH - While I took up a few fun food challenges, both in school and in my fresh produce career, I can say that none of those foods ended in someone having to call 9-1-1.

Not the case for a class full of Ohio junior high schoolers.

Last Friday, Sept. 2nd, about 40 kids ranging from age 11 to 14 were treated by medics after ingesting “suspected ghost peppers” at school, according to a Dayton Daily News report, five of which had to go to the hospital.

The culprit? A food challenge to ingest one of the hottest peppers in the world.

“Kids will be kids, and sometimes they do challenges and dare each other to do things,” Pam Bucaro, Clinical Nurse Specialist in Dayton Children’s Hospital’s ER, said. The hospital’s greatest concern, Bucaro commented, is exposure to hot peppers if the child has a history of asthma or if oils from the pepper reach the skin or eyes. “These are not games and there can be serious effects when ingesting things.”

That is what seems to have happened at the school, where symptoms reportedly ranged from blotchy skin, hives, and eyes tearing, to sweating and general discomfort.

The student who instigated the event and brought the peppers has since been identified, according to school officials, but whether or not they will be disciplined was not made clear.

“It was definitely a disruption, and school disruptions are in our school code of conduct,” Superintendent Brad Ritchey of Milton-Union Exempted Village Schools said. He also commented, “The response of emergency services was amazing; deputies and help from surrounding paramedics… we really had a lot of help here this afternoon. This was serious but sometimes situations at schools become far more serious than this.”

The actual incident happened during the school’s lunch period, and local police and emergency responders were called at 12:06 p.m. The district sent a one-call to all parents around 2 p.m.

Ghost peppers, or Bhut Jolokia peppers, score a hefty one million units on the Scoville heat scale, continuing to rise in popularity and availability as sauces and flavors. And kids aren’t the only ones learning to respect the capsaicin. We reported recently that a New York building was evacuated when an unsuspecting consumer microwaved an unidentified hot pepper.

AndNowUKnow will continue report on this fiery trend, though hopefully they keep out of reach of children.