No fewer than 28 girls have been rushed to hospital after collapsing while playing with Ouija boards at a school in Colombia.
Daily Mail reports that youngsters passed out while using the seance set at Galeras Educational Institution, in Pasto in the South of the country.
The students were rushed to hospital after losing consciousness with ‘anxiety’, which was after using the boards, known also as spirit boards, which are used to ‘contact the dead’.
The school’s directors and concerned teachers went with the students to the hospital and awaited an update on their condition.
One mother, who worked at the hospital, urged parents to act and investigate what was happening at the school after the news broke.
Hugo Torres, head of the Galeras Educational Institution in Pasto, Colombia, said: “There were 28 possible cases of anxiety in school students.
“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.
“For this reason, INEGA is allowed to report that the students were referred to the local municipal hospital according to protocols in place.
“Directors and teachers accompanied the students during the evaluation process.
“The respective parents and/or guardians were informed of the situation at the time.”
Torres also pointed out that the first two hospitalised students have underlying medical conditions. “The school is waiting for the medical diagnoses to provide further reliable information.
“The educational institute also respectfully asks citizens to refrain from making early judgements and diagnoses of their own.”
According to the report, many parents believe the children have been using Ouija boards in class.
Ouija boards were invented by spiritualists in the United States in 1886. Commercial versions followed in 1890 and have remained popular ever since.
They are believed by some to be a way to communicate with the dead.
Numbers and letters are arranged on the boards, allowing a ‘spirit’ to spell out a message for the living by moving a sliding ‘planchette’ over the engravings.
At least 11 teenagers were found collapsed after using an Ouija board at another school in Colombia In November 2022.
Five, aged between 13 and 17, were taken to hospital with vomiting, abdominal pain and muscle spasms.
It was later reported they had suffered from food poisoning.
