ST ANN, Jamaica — Over 50 students from the Ocho Rios High School were rushed to hospital this morning after a mosquito fogging exercise resulted their fainting on the compound.

It was reported that minutes before school was scheduled to begin foggers began spraying the compound, which severely affected some students.

“We picked up eleven students in the coaster ambulance, five in the Hiace ambulance,” Professor Roosevelt Crooks, one of the first persons to respond to the emergency situation said.

Crooks who transported at least 16 students through his ambulance service said, “I don’t think that it is students in mass hysteria; teachers were also affected. I took down two teachers who were also affected.” 

He praised efforts by taxi operators who also assisted in taking children to the hospital.

“The taxi men have been very responsive, the teachers have been responsive, but I laud the taxi men who have been picking them up at varying points in Ocho Rios. We have good citizens about and we need to thank them,” he added.

Professor Crooks however commented more Jamaicans need to respond appropriately in cases of emergencies.

“Some of the traffic people need to yield a little more when they hear sirens coming because I had to stop in the middle of the street to take up the first set because they (motorists) weren’t moving out of the streets, while people were running with students in arms trying to get to the unit,” he charged.

Patricia Hamilton, Jamaica Teachers Association (JTA) representative at the Ocho Rios High School who was among staff members who went to the hospital with students said the support the students received was well appreciated. 

“The support was immense. The situation has now been brought under control,” she said.

Hamilton was one of several teachers present when the fainting spell started at the school on Tuesday.