Mass hysteria grips Uttarakhand school; Students cry, shout, scream and bang heads

A 45-second-long video of a government school in Uttarakhand’s Bageshwar district surfaced on social media where school girls can be seen crying, shouting, and banging their heads.

After a government school in Uttarakhand’s Bageshwar district reported mass hysteria among the students, a team of doctors visited the school.

"The students are stable now. They were given counselling and are still under observation. We are yet to ascertain what caused this and that might take a few more days since it appears to be psychological,” said Reema Joshi, the district magistrate, as reported by The Quint.

A 45-second-long video of the students of the government junior high school in Rakhauli has surfaced on social media where the girl students can be seen crying, shouting, banging their heads and rolling on the ground.

Parents insist on pooja inside school campus

Vimla Devi, head teacher of the junior high school, told News18 that the 'abnormal' behaviour among a few girl students and a male student was first reported on Tuesday.

"They were crying, shouting, shivering, and even trying to bang heads for no reason. We called parents, they summoned a local priest and this is how the situation came under control," the head teacher said.

However, on Thursday again, unusual behaviour was noticed among the students and then a team of administration and doctors visited the school.

"Parents insisted that we perform pooja inside the school campus. They believe school is doomed. We would do anything, be it consulting doctors or taking help of faith healers so that everything becomes normal," said Vimla Devi. The physiatrists feel that it seems to be a case of 'mass hysteria'.

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