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Quote# 87886

The Miami Herald reports that, last weekend, Danielle Harkins told seven of her former students to cut their skin to allow evil spirits to escape from their bodies, and then taught them how to cauterize the wounds with heated up house keys, lest the spirits return.

It was comprehensive instruction.

Harkins, demonstrating a great flair for the dramatic, staged the ritual around dusk Saturday evening. She built a small fire near the St. Petersburg Pier for the teenagers to stand around as they self-exorcised.

At the moment, police are having a hard time getting the kids to open up about the specifics. The few details they have accumulated are bizarre and gruesome.

For example: when the wind coming off the water blew out the flame from a cigarette lighter Harkins was using as part of the cauterization stage, she poured perfume on one boy's hand, then set it on fire. He suffered second degree burns.

Another teen bore a cut on the neck from a broken bottle.

None of the students involved told their parents. Word about the ritual got out when one boy mentioned it in a text to a friend, and that friend told his parents.

Danielle Harkins, Miami Herald 41 Comments [6/21/2012 3:27:23 AM]
Fundie Index: 62
WTF?! || meh
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#1415130
Reynardine

How old were her former students? And was this religion, or just lunacy (which are not always identical)?

6/21/2012 3:35:33 AM
#1415133
Raised by Horses

Okay. This one is an open-and-shut case. Harkins needs psychiatric care and her students need to be removed from her presence as soon as humanly possible.

6/21/2012 3:54:14 AM
#1415136
rubber chicken

Teenagers do something stupid. Film at eleven.
Now back to our discussion of ursine toilet habits.

Meh!

6/21/2012 3:57:54 AM
#1415142
shykid



Also, how did that boy manage to suffer second-degree burns to his hand without his parents finding out, even if he didn't tell them? Doesn't anything over a first-degree burn require medical care, and wouldn't his parents have been notified or something if he had went to hospital? Either way, wouldn't his parents have at least noticed the burn or the bandages and gauze on his hand or something?

6/21/2012 4:09:34 AM
#1415143
Percy Q. Shunn

@Reynardine

These kids are teens, and yes, this is some silly religious horseshit she just recently got into.

6/21/2012 4:10:57 AM
#1415144
SpukiKitty

Somebody please shove this bimbo into a psych ward!!!

What is it with all these nuts in Florida, in particular, Miami?! You have the face-munching guy, you have similar attacks, you have this crazy teacher....THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU DE-FUND YOUR VARIOUS PUBLIC MENTAL HEALTH RESOURCES, FLORIDA!!!

Florida used to be the memetic punchline of "Oranges, Gators & Geezers". Now it's "Fundies, Weirdos & Face-Eaters"...with Pluto from "The Hills Have Eyes" as it's Governor, THE HELL?!

It's a beautiful state, otherwise, I lived there for a time....but MAN!

6/21/2012 4:30:45 AM
#1415146
shykid

@SpukiKitty: "What is it with all these nuts in Florida"

I don't even know, and I live here. It's gotten to the point where whenever I see something like this, I automatically assume it's from Florida and am genuinely surprised when I find out otherwise. Normally I like to brag about how weird Florida is, and I find all the zany things that happen in my state to be amusing and charming, but lately the weird Florida stories have gone from "delightfully eccentric" to "horrifying."

6/21/2012 4:36:32 AM
#1415150
Reynardine

Shykid, I'm with you. I've lived here most of my life since December, 1956, and the fierce, harrowing, tyrannical charm of this state succeeded in grappling me to the bones...but when this kind of lunacy keeps dumping on Florida, she's either going to dunk herself in the sea and get a good wash, or sprout a volcano along her spine and blow this stuff away (not wholly fanciful...isostatic rebound is already happening, and the presence of hot springs in the area from Tampa to Saratoga indicates the presence of magma not terribly far beneath the surface)

6/21/2012 4:52:23 AM
#1415153
checkmate

Sorry, but this is partly the kids' fault.

I was a teenager once too, but nobody would have gotten me to do something totally stupid like that. Teenagers aren't dumb sheep that just do whatever they're told. Any of them could have told Harkins to go fuck herself.

There are dumbass crazies in all generations. Looks like these kids may be getting up to the plate when the changing of the guard comes.

6/21/2012 5:03:37 AM
#1415154
fishtank

Someone is craaaazy.

6/21/2012 5:08:35 AM
#1415155


Are these kids minors, perhaps? Then she should be prosecuted for child-abuse.

6/21/2012 5:08:56 AM
#1415160
OtakuX

And the funides are worried about gays being around their children...

6/21/2012 5:14:45 AM
#1415162
Mister Spak

Sounds like a satanic ritual to me.

6/21/2012 5:18:33 AM
#1415164
Argle Bargle

Fundies are medically sane people with moronic and outdated beliefs. They willfully chose to believe absurdities. This is mental illness, something the person has no control over, and it requires immediate psychiatric aid, not scorn.

6/21/2012 5:27:00 AM
#1415169
buddtee

Huh?

6/21/2012 5:47:29 AM
#1415174
Doubting Thomas

What was she doing having students hanging around with her on Saturday night anyway? I seriously hope she loses her job and is never allowed to teach again. A person in a position of power such as a teacher should never be allowed to indoctrinate children into religious beliefs.

6/21/2012 6:10:03 AM
#1415175


Wow, this is some straight up Stone Age shit right here.

6/21/2012 6:11:40 AM
#1415176


Marching proudly back to the Middle Ages...

6/21/2012 6:14:53 AM
#1415184
Fundies Make Me Sick

This woman should be prosecuted for aggravated assault/battery. I'll say it as much as I need to. Fundamentalism needs to be destroyed.

6/21/2012 6:53:50 AM
#1415196
Brendan Rizzo

She is clearly mentally ill, and likely suicidal to boot. I hope nobody got seriously injured.

6/21/2012 7:26:26 AM
#1415202
Loki

......This is the 21st Century,right?

6/21/2012 7:53:59 AM
#1415276
Papabear

Unless the former students were all adults, it sounds like jail time is in order, whether the rite was religion and/or lunacy.

On another note, how odd these demons seem to be in that they can take control of one's life making one do all manner of things, but one cut and they are streaming jelplessly from the body of the possessed.

6/21/2012 10:10:23 AM
#1415316
myheadhurts

Teach the controversy! How else are we going to get rid of evil spirits?

6/21/2012 12:04:06 PM
#1415383
Xotan

Only pagans and Catholics use rituals. These must be heretical fundies.

The lady who is playing with exorcism is also playing, literally, with fire - and idiotic teenagers. She is therefore unstable and needs help. So do those kids.

6/21/2012 3:39:56 PM
#1415399
Old Viking

When I was a teen, if an adult told be I harbored evil spirits and had to cut myself, I would have believed it. Oh, wait. No I wouldn't.

6/21/2012 3:57:50 PM
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