Circumstances surrounding two reportedly ill school girls and a headmistress who allegedly prevented officials from accessing the premises on Monday remain murky in the extreme, with declarations contradictory and diagnoses ranging from drug overdoses to black magic. The Assistant Manager of Jeddah's Girls' Education, Ahmed Al-Hariri, said there was no truth in rumors that directorate officials were denied access when called to deal with a short circuit and prevent a fire. “It is also untrue that there were two girls who tried to commit suicide Monday, and that the headmistress stopped the Red Crescent and Civil Defense from entering,” Al-Hariri said. “They were not denied access as the health condition of the two students did not call for any medical assistance,” Al-Hariri said. “The school has its own health coordinator and medical units to handle them.” Al-Hariri said, however, that one of the pupils had been discharged from hospital after mistakenly taking an overdose of pills. “She had no psychological problems and it was not intentional,” he reiterated. Jeddah's Civil Defense chief Abdullah Al-Jedawi said, however, that he received a report from the school concerning the two pupils and that his officials, along with the Red Crescent, were denied access. “Assistance was given following a prior agreement with the school to send the assistant manager of Girls' Education Ahmed Al-Hariri to speak to the headmistress who refused to let in teams from the directorate,” Al-Jedawi said. “I called Health Affairs to have them send women medics to help the girls.” Al-Jedawi said that the “necessary measures will be taken” concerning the incident and that a report had been drawn up to be put before education officials. Speaking to Okaz, however, girls at the school had a different version of events. “There was no suicide attempt,” they said. “One of the girls had had a spell put on her and the other was a victim of the evil eye. The schools administration should look into it, as the directorate had no idea that they had been affected by a spell and the evil eye.” Respecting wishes Concerns over emergency help being denied at girls' schools rose again this week when another headmistress in Jeddah was reported to have refused male medics access to a pupil having an epileptic fit. Saudi Gazette reported on Tuesday that the principal of the 43rd Girls High School in Al-Naseem refused to let in four different medical teams to attend to the girl whose fit had also provoked seven others to faint. A full hour passed before female medics arrived. “We rushed to the scene but the principal wouldn't let us in,” said the regional spokesman for the Civil Defense. “We were told that the girls were okay, and we had to respect the wishes of the headmistress and the education department representative.” The incident was reportedly sparked by a gas leak from a science laboratory at the school.
