THE principal of Quiot High School ordered the students to take a few days of rest after going into hysterics earlier this week.
Lida Rodriguez told Sun.Star Cebu that 16 students became hysterical and had difficulty breathing. One kept shouting while one threw stones at school officials last Monday and yesterday.
“They will stay at home to be given modules. They will not be marked absent. The teachers will visit them in their homes,” she said.
The students will also undergo counseling, she said.
Rodriguez said the 16 students are not one group of friends but are from different school levels – from grade seven to third year high school.
They were fetched by their parents and brought home after the incidents.
She said some of the students have physical ailments. One was asthmatic while another had a heart problem.
There were two instances in the past when students suffered from hyperventilation and school officials had to call the Emergency Rescue Unit Foundation Inc. for help.
“Later, we were taught to let the students breathe into brown paper bags whenever they hyperventilate. They felt better after that,” she said.
The school principal said the students also had family problems. The parents of one student had separated while another student said she had been maltreated.
Rodriguez said the mother of one student would prepare food only for her husband and not for the children.
There are also students who go to class without breakfast. The students also have many school assignments that contributed to their stress.
“This is an impoverished school,” she said.
She said one student was prescribed maintenance medicines but could not take it regularly because they couldn’t afford it.
“There are 56 severely wasted students here. The barangay is coming out with some amount for feeding. I personally give P250 so we can prepare monggos or champorado and we also harvest from our vertical garden,” she said.
Yesterday, 90 chairs and two sets of teachers’ tables were delivered to the school, which has a population of 750.
“The night high school was introduced this year because we had so many enrollees,” she said.
The school used to have 80 students per class. After the night high school was opened, the number was reduced to 50 per class.
Religion classes started this yea given by Catholic nuns from the religious congregation of Sisters of Evangelization.
Rodriguez said she will continue teaching values to the students.
In a separate interview, Holy Cross parish priest Henry Visitacion said he was approached by teachers about students who were possessed by spirits.
“I asked them, what is your proof?” he told Sun.Star Cebu.
“I experienced it (possession by evil spirits) during my ministry. There were only two (cases) in my 39 years in the ministry,” he said.
Visitacion said there are students who have problematic parents while some go to school without eating breakfast.
He said students who grew up in an unhappy family are the most vulnerable to being possessed, he said.