Injured Student Warns Of 'Table-Topping' Trend
APPLE VALLEY, Minn. (WCCO) -- A Minnesota middle school student is speaking out about a dangerous and currently trending prank that left her injured.
The prank is known as table-topping, and a scan through YouTube suggests more and more kids are pulling the stunt on their classmates.
"I just want kids to be careful. Even though it's a prank, it's not funny to the other person. Especially not to me," Lauren Scott said.
Scott was table-topped at her middle school in Apple Valley, and the prank resulted in spinal injuries, a contusion in her back, soft tissue damage and, according to an MRI scan, possible fractures in her spine.
Table-topping involves someone getting down on their hands and knees behind the victim, who is then pushed back by someone else. Usually the victim then falls head-over-heels backwards, usually landing on his or her back.
Scott says she's still in pain weeks after she was table-topped, and feels it in her back and in her ankles.
"I got to be a plate that got flown across the table," she said. "It felt like somebody had just hit me in the back with a hammer."
Scott's mother said she didn't even know what the prank was until she heard about it from another parent.
"If the school can tell me every time there's a kid in that building with strep throat, they can also tell every parent when these kids are hurting each other and do something about it," said Kris Scott.
A spokesperson for Valley Middle School says they take this incident seriously. Lauren Scott's fall was the second they've heard of this school year.
One boy wrote her an apology letter, and both boys ended up in lunch detention for a week. But the effects of the prank linger.
"They didn't even say sorry until their moms made them," said Lauren Scott. "When they get hurt, they don't even care, and they should because it's hurting other people."
"My opinion is they didn't see her as a real person. They saw her as the butt end of a joke," said Kris Scott, who worked with police to see if charges could be filed. They recently told her they could not make a case.
Lauren Scott said she wants her story to be heard in hopes it will keep other kids safe.
