Dear Editor,

What happened at Oberlin High School is bizarre and shocking to the mind.

As pressure mounts for the ministry to respond, an in-depth analysis is first needed. Surely one cannot find a solution without first understanding the cause of the problem. From the outset one may assess the Oberlin situation as possibly falling into two categories: spiritual or psychological phenomenon.

From a psychiatric perspective, the students could be displaying mass hysteria, also known as mass psychogenic illness. In this case, the scientific idea is that whatever was said by those leading devotions led to some children acting out their version of being filled with the Spirit and then others were put in a suggestible state and unconsciously began to display the observed strange behaviours.

Apparently mass hysteria happens from time to time in many countries and is part of a spectrum of functional psychiatric phenomena. But the interplay between the psychiatric and the spiritual is complex and difficult to really understand. Who’s to say that both spiritual and psychiatric phenomena weren’t at work? With massive gaps in understanding about the cause of these events, one can only imagine that the solutions flowing from a proper analysis of the problem have gaps of equal or greater size.

With some sentiments being floated that devotions should be removed from schools, a sentiment the Association of Christian Communicators and Media seemed to be responding to, one must ask if there is really any evidence base that suggests that fewer devotions will result in fewer of these events. I would suggest that there is no such body of evidence. Furthermore, it would also be logical to ask another question: Is there any evidence to suggest that devotions across the island negatively affect the nation’s students, causing more harm than good? In my opinion, not at all.

Devotions have been happening in schools since their inception and are backed by section 18 of Jamaica’s Education Act. Additionally, the vast majority of schools are owned by churches.

Many of us have seen lives transformed or been transformed ourselves through ministry that took place in a corporate devotional setting in high school. It is also apparent that violence, drug abuse, sexual activity, gang-related activity, and a general disregard for authority, which have all featured heavily in the media in recent days, are rampant in our schools. It is unreasonable to express concern about these pervasive issues and at the same time restrict or remove corporate devotions in schools because of a rare and bizarre occurrence in one school.

While we encourage good governance as well as proactive and responsive leadership, knee-jerk reactions, which ignore the broad needs of students, and promoting a generalised response to a localised issue are likely to cause more harm than good.

Dr Daniel Thomas

President, Love March Movement

danielthomaschristian@yahoo.com