Classes resume today, September 20, after more than 200 students of San Jose National High School in Talibon, Bohol fainted last Friday after allegedly being harassed by an evil spirit during a mass.

The school has suspended classes for two days to allow the students and staff to recover from the incident.

According to the school principal in a media interview, Edwin Isidor Corbita, a total of 269 students collapsed but only 165 were brought to Garcia Memorial Provincial Hospital.

The rest regained consciousness at the school premises, he noted.

Corbita said that classes have resumed today, Sept. 20, Wednesday.

Corbita also said that he was not the principal when the big trees around the school were cut down, which some believe might have angered the spirits. He assumed his post on September 8 this year.

He expressed his hope that the parents would still trust the school after they did everything to cleanse the area from possible evil spirits with the help of the priests of the Diocese of Talibon.

Earlier, Fr. Darwin Gitgano, a renowned exorcist priest in Bohol, said that the students of that school were harassed by evil spirits because of various practices that do not belong to God.

He described the area as “infested” with evil spirits that attacked during the mass and targeted the children because they could not allow God to reign in that place.

He urged the people to pray fervently and stop doing rituals that are not sanctioned by the church so that peace would prevail in the said school.