What Happened When 40 Schoolchildren Ate One of the World’s Hottest Peppers

There comes an age in every adolescent's life when food challenges are the Funnest. Thing. Ever. Remember the cinnamon challenge craze that swept your sixth form common room? Or when you and your friends thought jamming dry crackers in your mouth without drinking water was hilarious? Ah, to be young and with access to your mum's spice cupboard.

However unappetising the food you swallowed in gag-inducing quantities to the delights of your bored teen mates, we're betting it didn't reach the levels of a recent incident at a US middle school last week.

On Friday, police were called to Milton Union Middle School in Ohio after 40 children ingested Bhut Jolokia peppers, one of the world's hottest species of pepper with a Scoville heat rating of over 1 million units.

Aged between 11 and 14, the kids who had eaten the pepper began experiencing blotchy skin, sweating, hives, and even problems seeing at around lunchtime. One eighth-grader, Cody Schmidt, told local newspaper Dayton Daily News that he tried one of the peppers, then "drank like 10 cartons of milk" after seeing the symptoms of his classmates.

Both emergency medical responders and the police were called to the school. An investigation found that all children had taken "these peppers voluntarily" from another student.

According to the newspaper, the kid who brought the peppers into school has been identified, but it is not yet clear whether they will be disciplined. However Milton Union Middle School superintendent Brad Ritchey did tell the newspaper: "It was definitely a disruption, and school disruptions are in our school code of conduct."

Still, could have been more disruptive. At least vaping dangerously hot chili peppers doesn't seem to have reached Ohio's school kids yet.