Filipino police blame evil spirits for mass wave of fainting students

We here at Xoom try to investigate all claims of the paranormal with an equally open-minded yet skeptical eye. However, I can pretty much call BS on this one from the get go:

THE serenity of the little town of Tublay, Benguet was broken when 30 students started fainting one after another on what locals believe to have been caused by vengeful spirits...
Councilor Ericson Felipe said the Municipal Council had to suspend its session after receiving the report. On Felipe's account, the incident first happened in the morning when only two students fainted.

But the spell continued after lunch when several female students from different year levels begun losing consciousness for no apparent reason. The incident lasted up to 3 p.m. the same day.

So, in other words, two chicks got out of school by faking a fainting spell and the rest thought they were onto something good and followed suit. Notice how the incident "lasted up to 3 p.m. the same day." Now I'm not sure how long the school day is in the Philippines, but I know that kids in the United States get off school at... 3:00 PM in general. Convenient, eh?

Still, what seems completely obvious to a sane person is labeled an attack by "vengeful spirits" by the local police:

Felipe, who personally witnessed the event, said there has been no definite reason as to why the fainting occurred. "The students passed out and remained unconscious for about 10 to 20 minutes. Two of became hysterical," he said.

In the blotter entry of the municipal police, it was alleged the students were possessed by evil spirits. The blotter said those who fainted numbered to about 30 students.

Felipe said local beliefs point to the demolition of an old school as being at the root of the entire hullabaloo. It is believed in the locality that spirits and other elementals used to live in the building, which had to give way for the construction of new structure for the school. The new school building cost P4 million.

Kids... you should probably be going to school instead of faking demon possession to get out of it, or you could end up as ignorant as the "community leaders" you just fooled.