Over 12 Teen Girls in N.Y. Town Developed Temporary Tourette&x27;sLike Tics in 2011. Now People Are Still Debating the Cause Raven BrunnerTue, March 3, 2026 at 2:47 AM UTC 0 Le Roy Central Marching Band.Credit: Warner Bros. Over a dozen teenage girls in a New York town developed tics similar to Tourette's in 2011, and people are still debating over what exactly happened The latest episode of ID's The Curious Case Of… series dives into the attention brought to Le Roy, N.Y.
Over 12 Teen Girls in N.Y. Town Developed Temporary Tourette's-Like Tics in 2011. Now People Are Still Debating the Cause
Raven BrunnerTue, March 3, 2026 at 2:47 AM UTC
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Le Roy Central Marching Band.Credit: Warner Bros. -
Over a dozen teenage girls in a New York town developed tics similar to Tourette's in 2011, and people are still debating over what exactly happened
The latest episode of ID's The Curious Case Of… series dives into the attention brought to Le Roy, N.Y., after teenage girls at the same high school claimed to suddenly experience involuntary movements and sounds
Two doctors declared that the students were experiencing a conversion disorder
In 2011, over a dozen teenage girls in a small New York town developed tics similar to Tourette's and people are still debating over what exactly happened.
The sixth episode in season 2 of ID's The Curious Case Of… series is called "The Town with Tourette's," and dives into the attention brought to Le Roy, N.Y., after several teenage girls at Le Roy Junior-Senior High School claimed to experience a sudden onset of tics.
"Under mounting scrutiny, the girls navigate doctor visits, judgment, and cameras as the real cause fades beneath hysteria and competing theories," the synopsis teases.
The March 2 episode features interviews from former students, the school's former band director and doctors in the area.
Le Roy Junior-Senior High School.Credit: google maps
In fall 2011, students at Le Roy Junior-Senior High School, a majority of whom were girls, began exhibiting involuntary body movements and sounds. Former band director Bradley Meholick says in the documentary that "the onset was fast" and, within weeks, multiple students in his class had developed tics.
A timeline in the episode shows that in September 2011, four students were afflicted. That number grew to six by that October. By late November 2011, nine students were afflicted.
The incident involved 20 patients in total, Reuters reported in 2012.
Per the documentary, there were two outliers in the outbreak. One was a teenage boy, and the other was a 35-year-old woman. However, they both had teenage girls in their lives who also developed the tics.
Emily Dun says in the episode that she was the youngest recorded afflicted student, and claims she didn't know the other people affected because they were older. Dun, now an adult, recalls being bullied by her peers because of her tics, saying, "Everybody was just so mean." She also says she was accused of faking her symptoms.
However, doctors confirmed that the symptoms she and the other patients were experiencing were real.
Emily Dun in high school.Credit: Warner Bros.
Dr. Laszlo Mechtler and Dr. Jennifer McVige of DENT Neurologic Institute were referring students from the school who were experiencing involuntary body movements, which ranged from vocal outbursts to twitching, according to the documentary.
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The two doctors said the students were experiencing a conversion disorder, and noted that there was "a component of psychological issues causing physical symptoms." The mass psychogenic illness, Dr. Mechtler says in the episode, had nothing to do with one's central nervous system or brain, and instead pointed to an "emotional issue."
Once Dr. Mechtler got permission from a few families to address the growing media attention, he released a statement saying the people "are going to be fine" and "are not faking it."
Dun recalls that many people disagreed with the conversion disorder diagnosis, with legal analyst Beth Karas noting that not all of the families were satisfied with the answer because "they didn't want to buy it was in their daughters' heads."
There was also the question: Where did it originate? At the time, there was a student named Rose Ortiz, who was diagnosed with Tourette's after experiencing her first symptom at 7 years old. Tourette syndrome, per Cleveland Clinic, is a neurological disorder that causes uncontrollable movements and sounds.
One anonymous resident claimed in the episode that the affected students were simply copying the student with Tourette's because they wanted the attention she received for her symptoms.
Rose Ortiz in marching band.Credit: Warner Bros.
Another theory, entertained heavily by the media, was that the outbreak was linked to a train derailment in 1970 that led to a significant amount of a toxic substance called Trichloroethylene spilling into one area.
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The theory caught the attention of environmental activist Erin Brockovich and investigator Bob Bowcock, the latter of whom found several 55-gallon drums filled with the chemicals while searching a wooded area. But when the substance was tested, the government found only a non-hazardous amount of Trichloroethylene, Karas says.
"I don't know if we'll ever know the truth," the legal analyst admits at the end of the episode.
Most of the patients no longer had symptoms by June 2012, Reuters reported.
The Curious Case Of... The Town with Tourette's premieres March 2 at 10 p.m. ET on ID, with new episodes of the series airing weekly. Episodes are available to stream on HBO Max after premiering on ID.
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Source: Entertainment
Published: March 3, 2026 at 05:09AM on Source: MANUEL MAG
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