'Mass Hysteria' Hit Gokwe School
A Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education official in Midlands Province said the situation is now back under control at Mbungo Secondary School in Gokwe South after mass hysteria, which villagers blamed on alleged goblins, hit the learning institution on Thursday.
Acting Midlands Provincial Education Director, Jameson Machimbira, said the district education Inspector visited the school yesterday with some psychologists to check on the situation and help the students.
He said the situation had returned to normal at the school and lessons are expected to resume this Friday after they were suspended on Thursday because of the attacks. Said Machimbira:
We hope the lessons will resume smoothly tomorrow (today) as the situation was now very normal.
According to witnesses to the incident, nearly all learners were attacked by hysteria at Mbungo Secondary School around 10 AM yesterday.
So severe was the hysteria that some pupils even turned violent and attacked teachers.
School authorities were forced to appeal to neighbouring villagers to come and help calm the situation.
The school was forced to suspend lessons, while some parents hired traditional healers for an exorcism exercise.
A local villager, Limon Macheza, said the attacks started at break time and nearly the whole school was affected. He said:
It all started around 10 am today (yesterday) when kids were on break time, they started screaming while others threw themselves on the grounds.
It attacked the pupils and this forced the teachers to call parents from homes near the school who then rushed to the school.
