Earlier today we reported on events which unfolded in Outwood Academy School in North Yorkshire which saw the collapse of multiple students and a teacher following an Armistice Day service.
The incident, which sent shockwaves through both the school and the wider public this afternoon, has been the subject of much speculation, and it now appears experts are not fully certain as to the reason for the event.
Offering a combination of possible explanations, David Coggon, Professor of Occupational and Environmental Medicine at the University of Southampton, explained; "The possibilities include an unusual acute toxic exposure, and a psychologically mediated response, perhaps triggered by one child fainting in hot and stuffy conditions, and growing anxiety as others also became ill."
In order to confirm the reason behind today's events which saw multiple students vomit and faint before being transferred to hospital, Professor Coggan insisted that a number of processes must be put into operation before a conclusive answer can be offered.
"To distinguish between these possibilities, health professionals will first need to make clinical assessments of the individual children who have become ill, and check the school for any possible sources of unusual hazardous exposures," he asserted.
Explaining that reliance on past incidents is futile in a case such as this, he continued; "Fortunately, incidents like this are rare, so we cannot say statistically what is the most likely cause from past experience."
Professor Coggan suggested that comparing the characteristics of children who did and did not become ill in the school in Ripon today would also act as a platform in which to establish the cause of today's events.
Our thoughts are with all those affected by today's worrying incident,
