Cong Corrales REPORTS of “demonic possessions” affecting students are not new to me. However, the recent report of the supposed possession of students from Initao National High School has something new to offer. The “spirits” were specific in their demand--for the school authorities to rebuild the old library the local government demolished a year ago. This got me thinking these spirits are not malevolent after all. What’s so evil in wanting to have their town library back? It’s a demand any student who is hungry for knowledge would make. I joked to our editor-in-chief that these spirits may be the “nerdest” bunch of spirits ever reported. No more malevolent than the way the supposed professionals and educators addressed the “demonic possession.” The event has stretched on for a week and affected at least 90 students but professionals and educators opted to seek the intervention of religious groups rather than doctors and nurses. The capitol, for its part, reportedly sent no less than the chairman-in-charge of the Provincial Disaster Reduction Response and Management Council (PDRRMC) and its Misor Cares in-charge to conduct an assessment. But the team said they could not give a proper assessment of the incident and lazily chalked it instead as a “spiritual concern.” The town mayor, who is as baffled as everyone else in town, was quoted as saying: “I admit nga lisod kini nga problema tungod kay wala nato makita kung unsa gyud ang hinungdan og responsable ngadto sa mga estudyante.” Well, where are the school’s science teachers by the way? Why the school principal didn’t contact the Department of Health at the first instance still baffles me? Let’s go back to the “interventions” these “professionals” opted to do. The students were rushed to nearest churches instead of the more standard and ultimately saner choice of “the nearest hospital.” There, the students were “immediately anointed with oil and holy water and were prayed over.” One lay minister complained that the students started throwing up when they let them drink “holy water.” This one takes the cake. Do you remember those bowls of water at the entrance of the churches where people dip their fingers before making the sign of the cross? That is “holy water.” It is unhygienic. I bet anybody, “possessed” or not, wouldn’t be grossed out at the thought of drinking that water. A journo-friend, who has reported on a similar incident, told me that in Cebu their Deped regional office already has a standing agreement with DOH whenever there are cases of “demonic possession.” Medical professionals do not call these incidents “demonic possessions.” They call it “mass hysteria.” In psychology, mass hysteria is defined as a phenomenon which transmits collective allusions of threats--whether real or imaginary--through a population in society as a result of rumors and fear or memory acknowledgment. The doctor told my journo-friend in an interview that they have monitored and charted these so-call “demonic possessions.” The doctor said these incidents usually happen during the Christmas and Holy Week periods. Mass hysteria has been happening too often that, the doctor said, they already have a standard medical approach to such incidents. They give the “possessed” students a barrage of medical tests (e.g. blood pressure). They hydrate the students and finally, one on one psycho-social therapy sessions with psychologists and therapists from the health department. Now, back to my question: In all of these insane and ridiculous rituals these supposed professionals and educators put the students through, where were the school’s science teachers?