By Emma Hunt / March 20, 2024
Recently at NCSSM, an unidentified illness has been going around. There has been a large uptick in the number of students choosing to wear masks, and coughing can be heard ringing throughout the buildings. With the source of the illness unknown, one can only wonder… is it due to Spoons, the schoolwide game?
According to one NCSSM student, “I saw an individual wipe their runny nose on their spoon and then go tap a fellow student with the spoon.”
As we all know, the transfer of bodily fluids is one of the fastest ways to spread cold-like illnesses. With these spoons being passed from person to person, touched by the noses of strangers, and never sanitized, are we unknowingly contributing to the spread of this disease? A spoons-demic, if you will.
The newspaper’s own Suchi Kona reports, “There was even a person who licked their spoon and then tagged someone else.”
The game, though fun, shows a common occurrence: North Carolina’s “best and brightest” acting in an unintelligent manner. As developments are made within the game (the recently-attempted website as a prime example), one might suggest a more sanitary approach to the game. Maybe it’s time for a permanent change. Why must the spoon be touching the nose? Is there not a more sanitary body part we could choose, especially with the game being played in peak cold/flu season?
When questioned about the addition of padding to the round part of her spoon, Thanai Votanopoulos states, “I add extra padding to my spoons so I don’t attract the ‘SSM cold.” Even going so far as to wipe it off with a Lysol wipe every day, my interview with her was still punctuated with a round of coughing.
We can’t know for sure, but I think it’s safe to say that Spoons is encouraging unhygienic practices and possibly even taking out NCSSM students – though not in the way it intends to…