'Vampire cult' panic grew from a wildly overblown story

BRISTOL, Va. -- Amid rumors that a bloodthirsty vampire cult might ritualistically sacrifice their children to gain immortality, dozens of Wallace Middle School parents kept their kids home Friday. Washington County School Superintendent Alan T. Lee said the panic grew from a wildly overblown story about an online "hit-list."

It began as a Facebook message from one worried relative to her 15 closest friends. They forwarded the message to people who forwarded it on again. School officials heard of it Thursday night and, by Friday morning, mass hysteria had set in.

A student professed to be a member of a religion called Jashinism and announced at school that she had to kill a sinner to become immortal. Her chosen religion is based on a character in Japanese comics named Hidan of Akatsuki, and believers consider the fictitious masochist their messiah, according to the website Jashinism: The Full Enlightenment to Immortality. The comics character Hidan worships "Lord Jashin," the "evil god" who expects his minions to "bring nothing less than utter destruction and death." On MySpace and Facebook, Jashinism discussion threads include the questions "what is your favorite part of killing someone?" and "who will be your first sacrifise [sic] to Jashin Sama?"

So the worried relative wrote a detailed Facebook message, titled it "Something to PRAY ABOUT!" and sent it to 10 or 15 friends. They passed it along and along and along. Somewhere along the line "hate list" became "hit list," and panic spread that a vampire cult infiltrated the Washington County public school.

Read more about this weird incident from the source.  Crazy that this involves pre-teens! Kids are growing up way too fast these days.  FYI this incident is tied to that website that is the bane of my existence: Vampire Freaks.  If you ever read about negative press regarding vampires, chances are that website will be mentioned.