On Monday, October 31st, 2022, more than three-quarters of total student population at Oberlin High School in rural St Andrew returned to class following a strange and inexplainable religious event that unfolded last Wednesday during which dozens of students fell to the ground, some froughting at the mouth while others screamed.
Attendance on Monday was encouraging when compared to last Thursday and Friday when fewer than 100 students showed up for class
Last Wednesday’s incident occurred after a female teacher declared during a routine devotional exercise that she had received a word from the Lord for the students.
As she settled into her prayer routine, she became overwhelmed and began speaking in tounges, thus triggering a copycat reaction among the students, and pandemonium broke out.
The school admin dismissed the population at 10 a.m. on Monday.
On Monday, Minister of Education Fayval Williams visited the school and dialogued with parents and administrators concerning guidelines to be followed until the end of the school term.
Williams suggested the school should conduct small group devotions where students remain in their form room instead of a general assembly.
I take umbrage with the Minister of Education for suggesting that, in the future, Oberlin should conduct small group devotional exercises where students do not leave their form room. Essentially, the Minister is telling Oberlin to cease performing devotions because school is not church.
I don’t think the Minister will get her way with her uninformed decision. Oberlin is a Quazi-government institution, and general assembly and church service are in its DNA. The United Church in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands (UCJCI) operates the St Andrew-based institution. And I am sure the church will abandon a decades old tradition to make the minister looks good.
This story was first published in the Jamaica Gleaner: