General devotions suspended at Oberlin High
Published:Tuesday | November 1, 2022 | 12:10 AM
Roughly 80 per cent of the student population at Oberlin High School in St Andrew returned to the classroom on Monday, following a bizarre religious event which unfolded last Wednesday, causing dozens of students to fall to the ground while others screamed.
Approximately 1,200 students attended school on Monday, following low turnouts of fewer than 100 of 1,500 students registered to the school last Thursday and Friday.
The incident reportedly unfolded after a female teacher, declared during the devotional exercise that she had received “a word” for the students. As she prayed for the pupils, she became overwhelmed and began “speaking in tongues”, triggering a chain reaction among some students.
The institution was dismissed at 10 a.m.
On Monday, Education Minister Fayval Williams visited the school and engaged parents and administrators regarding measures to be taken until the end of the school term.
Williams said that the school should host small-scale devotional exercises in which students remain in their respective form rooms as opposed to a general assembly.
The St Andrew-based institution is operated by the United Church in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands (UCJCI).
Rose Wedderburn, regional deputy general secretary for the Northern Eastern Regional Mission Council within the UCJCI, told The Gleaner that the church is cooperating with the education ministry and stands in full support of any recommended course of action, once it was in the best interests of the students, because of the trauma they experienced.
Wedderburn said that although the UCJCI could not explain what exactly had taken place at the school, it would continue to “act responsibly” and ensure that students were “safe and secure at all times”.
She acknowledged, however, that some matters were beyond their control.
The priority of the UCJCI, said Wedderburn, was to return normality to the school through the provision of on-the-ground support and counselling sessions by a team of ministers and counsellors.