The Reactivity of Rumors & Risky Behavior

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May 2026 was going about typically. I had finished my AP exams and was preparing for my class finals. But after class one day, my friend notified me of a startling story she’d heard about on social media. A user had posted a TikTok discussing how a student in California had faked anaphylaxis in the middle of an AP Chemistry exam. Numerous crazy AP exam stories had been going around during the month, but this post was particularly shocking to me not only because of the appearance of the incident, but also the hidden reasoning, connotation, and consequences of the act.

To discuss things from an allergy perspective, this incident reminds me of several other moments in the media, such as Super Bowl commercials or television episodes, that have intended to come up with allergy-centered “plots” to “entice” viewers. As an individual with multiple life-threatening food allergies, I find this frustrating and disrespectful. Food allergies are not a preference or simple human characteristic. They are an affliction of the immune system. A disease. Why would a student want to use a deadly disease as a pawn in their plan to escape a difficult task? Why would a company want to sell or promote their product by weaving a joke about a deadly disease into their advertising?

This abnormal satire has further hidden repercussions, though. Because of how serious real allergic reactions are, the possibility exists for sneaky individuals to get inspiration from such risky behavior they see on the internet, making it difficult for proctors to tell whether the student is faking to try to get out of the exam or if they are actually suffering. This puts to shame those who are truly allergic. See the scenarios below.

Sample Scenario 1

A student with no allergies walks into their classroom on exam day. They have a burning desire to not take their test. But they don’t want to seem suspicious by backing out immediately before the exam. So, they wait, and in the middle of the multiple-choice section, randomly, they start coughing as if undergoing an allergic reaction. But here’s the catch. They have carefully planned in their head when to start fake-coughing, so it seems normal. The proctor rushes the student to the nurse’s office, where epinephrine is delivered. When the student pretends to recover, they tell their friend after the test that they pretended to have a reaction to escape the test. The friend informs the proctor, and the student’s scores are canceled.

Sample Scenario 2

A student with allergies exits their classroom after finishing a module of their exam. It’s time for the snack break, and the student is relieved to take a breather. They spot their classmate next to them messily eating a bag of Goldfish and dropping crumbs on the floor. As the student bends down to grab their calculator for the next portion of the test, they accidentally come into contact with the Goldfish crumbs. The student has a severe gluten allergy. Shortness of breath hits them in the face. But this time, their coughing and struggles are genuine.

The difference between the two situations is vivid. In the first, the person is lazy, careless, and shows no empathy for those with allergies. They only want to avoid their tasks, but they are putting a large part of the population to shame. In the second, the reaction occurred completely accidentally, but this setting demanded urgent attention.

It is important to be aware that scenes such as the AP Chemistry upheaval exist, but also to advocate that such issues tarnish so many groups of people, from the students and advertisers who think they’re doing something clever (when in reality their actions are cruel) to the guiltless food allergy community. People should not evade their responsibilities, and they most definitely should not take an issue as serious and critical as a life-threatening health condition for granted as an excuse to do so.