Principal Stephanie Posey said Naperville North may need to brush up on making good choices after a dozen students became ill eating an infamously spicy candy.

Two students were taken to Edward Hospital last Friday but returned to school by the end of the school day, Posey said.

“I would say it was a lesson learned so regretfully they had some physical ailments from it, mostly discomfort,” she said.

Several students exchanged the candies, known as the Toe of Satan, during 6th hour lunch. After ingesting the candies, the students began having some discomfort.

The unusual gifts website vat19.com brags that the lollipop is 900 times hotter than a jalapeno. The candy advertises itself to gastronomic thrill-seekers, challenging them to keep the candy under their tongue for five minutes.  Other such challenges have appeared in the past, most notably the Cinnamon challenge.

“Kids are kids. Sometimes you think you can do things that you can’t really or that you think that you can overcome the discomfort, hence the challenges that you see on Youtube all the time,” Posey said.

School Nurse Pam Seubold doubted that all the students were seriously ill.

“Sometimes I think when there’s a group of kids, it’s more about the… situation. One person starts saying one thing, another person adds to it,” Seubold said.

Posey declined to comment further on whether there would be any discipline handed out to the students who had originally brought the candy to school.

But she did note that there would be talks with the students involved or affected about making choices and the results that may occur from them.

Posey said her overarching hope from this incident is that students learn to think twice before acting.
“Think about it,” she said. “Take a few seconds before you make that commitment to try something you’re not sure about. Especially at school.”