“When you believe in things you don’t understand, then you suffer. Superstition ain’t the way.”
These lines from Stevie Wonder’s song titled “Superstition” popped into my head while I was reading about yet another case of “evil possession” in the Patupat National High School in the southern town of Barili, Cebu.
The third in less than a month, according to the report.
The first incident happened last March 14, 2023, when teachers were forced to attend to 13 students who suddenly displayed strange behavior like becoming overly aggressive and speaking in a different manner. The same thing happened last March 20, but this time involving 20 students.
Last Monday, April 3, another student allegedly fell victim to another “evil possession.”
The “victims” from last month were all female between the ages of 15 and 16 and were in Grade 7, junior high and senior high.
I don’t know about the latest one since the report didn’t identify the sex, but in most likelihood the student was also a girl because they usually are in these cases.
I’m not being sexist. I’m just stating facts.
I’m not saying females are more prone to “mass hysteria,” but that’s how the priest who was called in to see to the affected students last March 14 described the phenomenon.
Yup, they called a priest instead of a doctor or a psychologist.
And how has the school addressed the problem?
The principal said teachers and students have been praying the Holy Rosary every day while the school division has approved the holding of a mass at the school once a month.
Should they have gone about it in a more scientific manner to get to the root of the problem?
I don’t know. It’s hard to say without sounding judgmental. Also, I don’t have any medical knowledge save for what I learned from watching the movies or TV or reading popular literature.
But as a keen observer of human interaction and a “master of arts in relaying information through exaggerated storytelling,” here’s my take on this whole thing.
Public school teachers should stick to subjects like math, science, language, history and whatnot. Leave religion out of the classroom. They have no business relying on empirical data alone to jump to out-of-this-world conclusions.
What kind of example are they setting to their students?
Instead, they should have conducted a follow-up on the condition of the affected students last month. They should have inquired about the doctor’s diagnosis.
It will almost be impossible to prevent the same thing from happening if they don’t know what caused the problem in the first place.
Stick to the facts is what I’m saying.