Teen-age boy seriously injured after imitating movie

ST. PAUL (AP) -- A Hastings boy is recovering from third-degree burns on 65 percent of his body after setting himself on fire to imitate stunts from "Jackass: The Movie."

"He is going to live," his mother told the St. Paul Pioneer Press. "He was on life support for about six days. He will be in the hospital a minimum of two months. He has already had three major surgeries, and I don't know how many more he'll have."

The newspaper agreed not to identify the mother in order to keep her son's identity private.

Staring into the video camera, the 14-year-old boy says, "Don't try this at home" and then sets himself on fire.

The R-rated "Jackass: The Movie" shows actors performing stunts such as the "human barbecue" in which a man lights himself on fire to grill steaks. The movie, which grew out of an MTV television show, includes a warning to viewers that it doesn't accept submissions and not to try the stunts at home.

Still, a number of young people nationally have been seriously injured or killed in fires and car accidents after mimicking the stunts.

The boy's mother said they don't have cable TV, but that her son had seen the TV show at friends' homes and had seen the trailer for the movie on TV. She said he was working on a project about how media affects youth and decided to make a video similar to the trailer.

Chief Deputy Dave Bellows said the parents shouldn't be blamed.

Bellows said teen-agers tend to believe they are invincible and don't realize the dangers of such stunts.