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A total of 28 schoolgirls in Colombia were hospitalised after suffering anxiety attacks after apparently playing with Ouija boards in school.
“There were 28 possible cases of anxiety in school students,” said Hugo Torres, head of the Galeras Educational Institution in Galeras, where the incident took place, according to New York Post and other media citing Jam Press.
The girls reportedly fainted and showed symptoms, including anxiety, while in school.
The school in Colombia via Jam Press
Parents and school faculty subsequently conveyed those afflicted to a municipal hospital.
The students’ diagnoses were not revealed.
But many parents blamed the use of Ouija boards, which have sliding pointers to spell out messages supposedly without human intervention.
Ouija boards were popularised in the United States in the late 1880s.
They are mentioned in occult lore as they are believed to be used to communicate with spirits.
Nutritional deficit to blame?
However, the controversy might be linked to a lack of nutrition, rather than the supernatural.
While many parents believe the children have been using Ouija boards in class, as per Mirror, officials are pointing to a more mundane cause.
This has led to an exchanging of views.
One mother said the children fainting at school cannot be blamed on the lack of consumption of food.
“I work here in a hospital kiosk and every day I see three or four children arrive after fainting,” according to one mother.
“Parents, you have to move, investigate what’s happening at school, because our children cannot continue in this situation.”
She added: “Our children always have a good breakfast and it cannot be said that what’s happening is due to lack of food.”
Torres has accused community members of stoking hysteria instead and implored members to avoid making “early judgments and diagnoses of their own” in the interim.
He said: “Given the reported cases, a series of comments were unleashed on the community that, rather than helping to resolve the situation, led to confusion and an adverse environment for our work.”
The school is apparently waiting for the medical diagnoses before providing further information.
Not the first time
School-going children fainting and displaying other symptoms in Colombia is apparently not new.
Daily Mail reported that 11 teenagers were found collapsed after using a Ouija board at another school in Colombia in November 2022.
It was later reported that at least five of them had suffered from food poisoning.
Top photo via Jam Press