In March 2023, something spooky happened at the Galeras Educational Institution, a school in Pasto, Colombia. Twenty-eight schoolgirls ended up in the hospital because they felt super scared and anxious after playing with a Ouija board during class. A Ouija board is a game with letters and numbers that people use to try talking to spirits or ghosts. The girls started fainting, feeling nervous, and showing other signs of being unwell, so teachers and parents rushed them to a nearby hospital for help.
Hugo Torres, the head of the school, said there were “28 possible cases of anxiety” among the students. He didn’t say for sure that the Ouija board caused it, but many parents believed it was to blame. One mom, who works at a hospital kiosk, told reporters she sees kids fainting every day—three or four of them—and she’s worried. She said, “Parents need to check what’s happening at school because our kids can’t keep going like this.” She added that her children eat breakfast, so it’s not about hunger—it must be something else, like the Ouija board.
The Ouija board has a creepy reputation. It was invented in the United States in 1886 and became famous for supposedly letting people chat with the dead. In movies, it’s often shown as scary, which makes people nervous about it. At the school, no one knows exactly why the girls got so upset—doctors hadn’t shared their official reports yet. But the idea of talking to spirits might have freaked them out. This wasn’t the first time something like this happened in Colombia. In November 2022, 11 teens at another school fainted after using a Ouija board, though some later said it was food poisoning.