“Caliente!”
Or something along those lines is likely what some Long Island, New York students screamed when their friend gave them a piece of “ghost pepper.” The savagely hot fruit (suprisingly, peppers are fruits ) literally sent the ghost pepper eaters running, and the ghost pepper distributor to the principal’s office.
The ghost pepper, also known as the bhut jolokia, is one of the hottest, spiciest pepper’s on the planet, 400 times hotter than Tabasco Sauce, as demonstrated by some brave and/or crazy “ghost pepper challenge” participants on YouTube , as well as some other ghost pepper experimenters who can save you the challenge.
But for Nick Lien, a student at Centereach High School, munching the punishing ghost pepper apparently isn’t a big deal, so he brought some ghost pepper pieces to school to share with some pals. And that’s when the pepper problems began, reports the New York Post .
“I was shocked, because I didn’t realize that giving someone a pepper could get me into as much trouble as I was in,” said Nick – the pepper provider – Lien, whose family also enjoys the heat of the ghost pepper.
“My friends saw that I had the new ghost pepper with me, and they all wanted to see how spicy it really was, because everybody thought that basically they could handle it and it was nothing. So, they all tried a piece.”
Lien’s friends had gathered around him in gym class on Thursday and he handed out some small ghost pepper pieces, and judging by the reactions of Lien’s friends, Lien is lucky the ghost pepper didn’t set off the gymnasium fire alarms and flood the place.
Two of Nick Lien’s pals in particular couldn’t handle the powerful ghost pepper, succumbing to the apparently excruciating heat and suffering ghost pepper melt-downs. Eye’s watering and crippled by the ghost pepper, the afflicted students then made a run for the nurse’s office.
This unleashed the heat of school officials who quickly found out that Nick Lien was behind the ghost pepper scare and focused some anger at Nick, accusing him of putting his friends in danger by dosing them with the ghost pepper portions.
Because of this, Nick Lien was slapped with a ghost pepper penalty of sorts, officials giving the pepper-pusher two days of after-school suspension.
According to Nick, the school officials told him he was just like a drug dealer.
“I was told that it’s equivalent to giving someone LSD,” said Nick, a notion that has left him, and perhaps more importantly his mom, Sharon Lien, fired up with some red hot anger of their own.
Ms. Lien confirmed that the Lien family eats ghost peppers all the time and they certainly shouldn’t be equated with drugs .
“We eat hot peppers, so it’s, like, no big deal,” said Sharon. “I eat hot food. My family eats hot food, it’s just in our blood.”
And now the Liens are suing the Middle Country Central School District, reports CBS News .
While the superintendent of Middle Country Central School District says Nick Lien put the health of his student friends in jeopardy by giving them the ghost pepper pieces, and therefore deserves to be punished, the attorney for the Liens, Ken Mollins, says poppycock.
“They’re punishing a kid for bringing something for lunch,” said Mollins. “This is ridiculous.”
The Liens camp also noted that New York has no state regulations on ghost peppers and that even fast food joints like Wendy’s have a version of ghost pepper sauce available.
Regardless, if you’re ever offered a ghost pepper, either say “No” or accept that you’re a hot pepper masochist.
[Images via Reddit.com and YouTube ]