The definition of “planking,” according to Urban Dictionary, is lying facedown, like a plank, in obscure places. “The Cinnamon Challenge,” another peculiar pastime, is based around the goal of swallowing a spoonful of cinnamon without the help of any liquids (urbandictionary.com). Both have been major trends amongst young people in the past two years. Both are also equally ridiculous and dangerous, and neither should be encouraged or tolerated, especially around school.

It may sound bizarre, but activities such as planking and participating in the Cinnamon Challenge are fairly dangerous, let alone extremely foolish, things to do. Although most people take planking lightly, there have been hundreds of injuries and a few actual deaths caused by it (nzherald.co.nz). In Brisbane, Australia, 20-year-old Acton Beale was attempting to plank on a balcony seven floors high when he fell to his death (cbc.com). Another incident occurred in Gladstone, Missouri when 20-year-old Nate Shaw was called into court for planking on top of a cop car and then proceeding to upload the picture to Facebook. He was being charged on counts of trespassing on private property without permission (upi.com). Both of these incidents show that planking can be, depending on the situation, life threatening and/or against the law.

The Cinnamon Challenge is just as dangerous. There are two kinds of cinnamon sold in grocery stores: Ceylon and Cassia. According to the Mother Nature Network, a health website, both are made up of the organic compound cinnamaldehyde, which is also used in pesticides and fungicides. It can constrict the throat, making it difficult to breathe and potentially causing the challenger to choke to death (mnn.com).

These harmful, albeit trendy, movements have even spread to our school. Senior Austin Fikes admitted to planking in the past. “On the Europe trip the school went on about ten months ago, all the pictures of me were just pictures of me planking around Europe, like in front of the Louvre, Buckingham Palace, even in the Parisian subway system,” said Fikes. He believes the reason planking has grown so popular is not because it’s particularly fun, but because it was rapidly publicized on the Internet. “Well, it’s on the Internet, and I will do whatever the Internet tells me to do,” Fikes said.

Freshman Kalena Nilges discourages planking at school. “It’s a distraction from schoolwork. There were some guys lying down, I mean ‘planking,’ on top of a trashcan, and it just crumbled. I felt like it was a destruction of school property,” said Nilges.

Several months ago, she gave the Cinnamon Challenge a shot. “The Cinnamon Challenge is a waste of cinnamon and no one can do it, so I don’t get why people keep trying. It just burnt,” she said. “It burnt my tongue and I spit it everywhere. It was just disgusting. I really don’t think people at school should do it.” Potentially dangerous trends like these shouldn’t be done anywhere let alone on a high school campus. It could set an example for other students to try it out as well, and end up hurting a lot of people at UC.

Planking and the Cinnamon Challenge are both trends that would do good to just die off, especially within the school. They both are dangerous and simply shouldn’t be tolerated by either students or the administration.