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Saturday, July 09, 2005
Pupils’ hysteria forces school to suspend classes
By Mia E. Abellana
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
Classes in a school in Dumanjug, Cebu were suspended yesterday morning after some 30 high school students were allegedly “possessed”.
The nuns who run the Little Flower School in Barangay Poblacion wouldn’t conclude that the students were possessed. They said they still have to observe if the waves of hysteria had emotional, psychological or spiritual causes.
The Little Flower School is run by the Oblates of Notre Dame sisters.
At about 9 a.m. yesterday, classes had to be suspended after the students, aged 14 to 15, allegedly became hysterical and then went weak.
Insp. Carmelita Conde-villamar, Dumanjug Police chief, said she saw how the students screamed and trembled.
But when they were brought home, they calmed down and regained their strength.
“I don’t know if you believe me, but there are really bad spirits there,” Condevillamar said.
Sr. Maritess Arzagon, school principal, told Sun.Star Cebu that it began with just one student, who went hysterical.
Strange
“After that, nagsunod-sunod na. It is so strange because this has never happened before,” she said.
Then some students complained that they felt very tired.
Contrary to rumors, Azargon assured no one fainted.
“They were conscious. We checked their eyes and they moved. They could hear us. Tamad-tamad lang sila,” she explained.
She said they complained of headaches and that they did not have the strength to listen to the lessons.
After this, some of the students panicked while parents began arriving to bring their children home.
Azargon said she and the teachers did their best to calm them down, but did not force the students to stay.
This made her decide to suspend the classes as the teachers also had a scheduled conference that afternoon.
She assured they were now well again after they went home.
Last Monday, she said, seven students were rushed to the hospital after they ate lumpia from a nearby eatery.
They suffered stomachaches and had loose bowel movement.
Though they first blamed the lumpia, doctors who conducted laboratory blood and urine tests said a viral infection caused their illness, not food poisoning.
Arzagon said the next day, the students should not have gone to school but rested.
Instead, they took a bath despite having a slight fever and went to school.
She said it was possible this had something to do with the incident.
Counseling
She added that she has asked the parish priest to do counseling for the students.
However, those outside the school believe spirits took over the children.
Condevillamar said the school was surrounded by trees and that she found it odd that when they left the school they felt better and everything went back to normal.
She described the affected students as if they had seen something and were afraid. (MEA)
(July 9, 2005 issue)
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