Dangerous 'Isis Game' leaves school student needing six-hour surgery to save hand

The boy was gripped in a headlock during a mock-beheading.

A Michigan school student suffered a cut to the hand that required six hours of surgery after playing the "Isis Game" where pupils pretend to behead each other. The game went horribly wrong when it was played by two boys in the locker room of Lakeshore High School in Stevensville after football practice on Wednesday 11 October.

The point of the game is to surprise another student from behind by getting them in a headlock. A report by the Lincoln Township Police who investigated the incident described how the game is played.

It said: "Where an individual comes up behind [someone], puts that individual in a headlock and yells at him stating 'do you have family, do you have loved ones?' And then makes a motion across their neck in a cutting motion pretending to cut the individual's head off."

Officers said the student performing the headlock was holding a knife in his free hand, and as the student in the headlock started to struggle, the first student cut his left hand on the knife.

When the boys, who are friends, saw blood they stopped the game and reported what had happened to their coach, said police. The game is normally played without any physical weapons. Both students have not been named by the authorities.

The freshman who was cut suffered a severed nerve in his hand and needed almost six hours of surgery. Officers interviewed everyone involved and concluded there was "no intent" to cause an injury, adding the incident does not constitute a criminal offence, but is a "reckless action".

The police report stated the student who had the knife, which was an X-acto craft knife, similar to a scalpel, found it in the school car park about a week before the accident. He then kept the knife in his locker, before deciding to use it during the game.

A lawyer for victim's family attorney said that surgery went well, and the family is now waiting to find out if his hand will fully function again. The family is considering legal action against the school board for negligence, since the knife was on school property for so long, the lawyer added.