Social Media Challenge Gone Wrong: Pranks to Prison

Y’all gotta stop doing these dumb challenges. If it involves fire, guns, knives, or other weaponry, it's a no. Period. No questions asked. Anything else, know that if it is a challenge on social media, someone has made ignorance go viral only to see how many people play into it. For the love of all things right in this world, STOP IT, Y’ALL!!!!!

Alcohol & Fire Social Media Challenge

The newest teen internet challenge to hit the social media world is probably the least stupid and least dangerous of them all -and it’s nothing short of teen brain cells hard at work. This challenge involves stacking milk crates one on top of the other and walking to the top without falling. Many teens have already seriously injured themselves participating in the challenge.

Previous challenges involved even more death-defying, dangerous acts and the ever-vulnerable teen population have no qualms about participating in them all.

Last year, a social media teen challenge cost one teen 10 years of his life and another permanent disfigurement. The young man could have spent 27-years in prison had the court convicted him of all charges.

It Was Just a Prank

In Nov. 2020, an 18-year-old teen by the name of Jadarius Gillum was sentenced to 10-years in prison after he pleaded guilty to aggravated assault in the burning and disfigurement of his friend and neighbor,(then) 13-year-old Uriaus Young.

“It was just a prank,” Gillum said as he accepted a plea deal from the Jones County Circuit Court. He told the court that Young was “just like a little brother.”

The “prank” left Young hospitalized with second-degree burns to his face, neck, and upper body.

Polyester Shirt Melts on Body

Participating in a social media challenge for TikTok, the “prank” that was going around involved rubbing alcohol on the face of an unsuspecting person and then setting the person on fire. Done correctly, the quick blaze burns off the alcohol goes out before it will ignite the flames.

That isn't what happened this time.

Teen Was Sleeping

As Young slept, Gillum rubbed his face with alcohol and then set it afire. Instead of going out, the fire caught the young man on fire. Gillum grabbed a shirt and attempted to put the fire out. The shirt, made from polyester material, melted to Young’s face.

Looking at photos of Young after the incident, Judge Dal Williamson responded to the young man by saying, “This was not a prank. Young will have to live with being disfigured for the rest of his life. Every time this young man looks in the mirror, he will be taken back to the day this horrible thing happened to him. I hope you never forget what you did, Mr. Gillum.”

Skin Was Dripping in the Floor

Young ran next door to his own where his mother, Monique Terrell, rushed him to the hospital. “I was in the shower...he knocked on the door and his skin was dripping on the floor, “ she said. “I wanted to kill somebody. I had a baseball bat ready to go find them.” Terrell said it is a day she will never forget.

He Needs to be Punished

Ms. Terrell signed off on the plea deal stating that while she understood that Gillum was friends with her son, he needed to pay for what he had done.

“I want him to think about what he did to my son,” she said. “He could’ve died, and then he’d be facing a murder charge.”

Although Young has made a remarkable recovery, he still has scars on his face to remind him of the incident.

“I have said it many times that one quick, bad decision can affect people for years to come,” Chief Tommy Cox of the LPD said. “It is a double tragedy for something as dumb as an internet challenge to affect two families in such a way. This is just another example that social media may be the worst thing to ever happen to this country.”