Chalk Ninja Club Offers a New Spin on Common Game

Senior Tony Jones comes to social studies teacher David Muhammad’s room after school one November day, covered in chalk. He asks Muhammad if he would sponsor his chalk ninja club. Slightly confused, Muhammad asks Jones what exactly chalk ninja club is.

Chalk ninja, which Jones invented, is a spin-off of the game “ninja.” In ninja, players take turns hitting each other and are only allowed one movement per turn. The objective is to karate-chop another player, for example, in the hand. In this case he or she wouldn’t be able to use that hand for the rest of the game. In chalk ninja, players hit each other with colored chalk on their hands.

“I just thought [using chalk] would be interesting and more fun,” Jones said. “Hitting people with color instead of blank hands makes it more exciting.”

Unlike in the original ninja game, in the new chalk ninja club at East, players lose one of their three lives when they are hit. They can still move about freely. Chalk ninja is usually played throughout  the first three floors of the school.

Every Friday after school, the 10-15 regular players get ready in Muhammad’s room by choosing teams- generally of two- and rubbing chalk on their hands. The purpose of the chalk is to allow them to tell who hit them at the end, to determine a winner. They then have 30 seconds to find a hiding spot somewhere in the school.

Players can hide in the hallways, the cafeteria or Muhammad’s room, but not in any other classrooms. Once the game begins, they chase each other around, trying to hit each other on the legs, arms, or face with chalk all while avoiding getting hit by the other players. After 15 minutes, the players all meet back in Muhammad’s room to assess the colors on their arms and determine the winner.

Jones got the idea for the game during a class at a Kansas City Art Institute camp. They had been playing ninja and, during class, a friend was using pastels for a picture, and Jones put his hand in the pastels and smacked him. That’s when the idea popped into Jones’ head.

At the beginning of the school year, he organized a group of 10-15 friends, and they played the game after school on Fridays, in art teacher Jason Filbeck’s room, since he allowed them to play there and they had access to chalk. In November, Jones decided to ask Muhammad if he would sponsor it as a club. This way, he reasoned, it could become a more official, well-known club.

“When we needed a sponsor, we asked Mr. Muhammad, because we knew he’d say yes,” Jones said.

Muhammad decided to sponsor the club in spite of his doubts about its legitimacy; he thought Jones was kidding about the club when he first asked.

But he realized playing chalk ninja was a lot better than other things high school kids could be doing.

“[I support] kids trying to do something better than unproductive lifestyle choices,” Muhammad said. “If [playing chalk ninja] is going to keep them from doing something else, then hey, I support it.”