J&K's weeping students stun all

JAMMU: Students at a far flung school in J&K's Kathua district have been exhibiting inexplicably strange behaviour such as rolling on the floor that has baffled both teachers and parents.
Kewal Krishan, headmaster of a government high school in Sitti village of Bani tehsil said: "It all started about a month back. Two students in class 1 said they were feeling dizzy. After a while they started weeping and crying.
"We shifted them out of the classroom and brought them into the office. Instead of getting any better, they started rolling on the floor". The headmaster said after a few days the same behaviour was exhibited by three girls of class 9.
"This put us on the alert. We called their parents who said two of these girls had suffered similar attacks a few times at home, but the parents of the third girl were shocked to learn about the behaviour of their child. "On June 14, the number of students showing same symptoms went upto 50.
"The chief educational officer sent a team of doctors who said that they did not find any medical reasons for the behaviour attributed to the children," the headmaster said.
He said an administrative officer who came to the village also happens to be a doctor.
"He met the affected students. He told us that it was not unusual for children to imitate behavioural symptoms of each other. He also said it is quite possible the affected students are not doing well academically and they have consciously or subconsciously adopted symptoms as excuses for their parents to withdraw them from the school," the headmaster added.