‘Choking Game’ Yields Varying Responses From Educators

Some fear addressing the dangerous activity could prompt copycats.

Victoria, Va.

Reneé Mills knew something was happening to her bright, blue-eyed, 13-year-old son, Dakota, in the weeks before he died.

Too often, she said, the school nurse called home to say the 7th grader, known as Coty, was complaining about headaches. His temper was short. A former school nurse herself, Ms. Mills wondered whether her son was playing tricks on staff members at Lunenburg Middle School, located in this rural community a little more than an hour southwest of Richmond, Va. But worried, she asked a family friend a few years older than Coty to gently probe to see whether her son might be using drugs.

On March 29, Coty Mills was found dead in his bedroom closet, with a device made of two belts...