Hundreds still sick in Mexico Catholic school mystery
Pastor Dale Morgan
Tuesday April 10, 5:04 AM Reuters
*Hundreds still sick in Mexico Catholic school mystery*
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Hundreds of girls at a Mexican boarding school
run by Catholic nuns have been struck by a mystery illness that
authorities say is psychological, raising questions about conditions
inside the academy.
Headmistress Margie Cheong, a nun from South Korea, said on Friday it
was unclear what had caused the symptoms, which include difficulty
walking and nausea.
"We really don't know the cause, but the diagnosis by health authorities
is of a psychological ailment," Cheong said.
Some 600 of the 4,000 girls at the Villa de las Ninas school had been
affected, she said, and 300 children had left the school, which offers a
free secondary education to children from poor families.
Television images showed parents taking their children from the school,
some carried in their arms, others grasped tightly to stop them falling
over.
Cheong said she had only recently alerted parents and authorities of the
illnesses, despite the first cases having appeared in October, because
she did not want to cause panic.
Government psychologists will begin interviews with pupils next week to
determine what happened.
Some of the students have complained of overstrict disciplinary measures
like being sent to sleep in an enclosure that houses sheep.
Student Genesis Mauries says she was treated for a year for a lump on
her neck with a scalding paste made from a Korean herb, which was placed
in three places on her back where she now has three round scars. Since
leaving the school she has been diagnosed with cancer.
Villa de las Ninas is on the outskirts of Mexico City and is run by the
Sisters of Mary, a religious order founded in South Korea by U.S.-born
Aloysius Schwartz, who died in 1992.
Cheong denied she had mistreated her pupils but said she would accept
responsibility if the government investigations said otherwise.