Clippinger Laboratories on Ohio University’s campus was closed for two hours Tuesday afternoon after two female students passed out in the building.
The individuals lost consciousness for unknown reasons, OU Police Chief Andrew Powers said.
The first woman passed out and hit her head, said Steven Kriaris, a freshman who said he was in the chemistry class when the girls fainted.
While the first woman was being escorted out of the classroom, another individual helping her collapsed in the doorway, Kriaris said.
Powers said he couldn’t be sure whether lab substances caused the incident.
After the building closed at about 3:30 p.m., an official from OU’s Environmental Health and Safety department performed atmospheric tests on the building.
Students and faculty were decidedly frustrated about being shut out of the hall.
Will Follett, a junior studying political communications, said he was in a geology lab when he heard the building was closing.
About an hour and a half later, Follett and about 50 students and faculty members were still gathered outside anxiously waiting for the chance to head back inside.
“I need to get into the building because I have to turn in homework in 15 minutes,” Follett said. “We didn’t know what it was and we thought it’d be a 10- to 15-minute fire drill or something.”
Others echoed Follett’s frustrations.
Without a chance to access his office, Geoff Buckley, associate professor of geography, said he left campus Tuesday at about 4:40 p.m. — earlier than usual.
“… There’s nothing I can do,” Buckley said.
Atmospheric chemical tests came back negative, Powers said, and classes that would have been in session resumed at 6 p.m.
sh335311@ohiou.edu
@SamuelHHoward
ld311710@ohiou.edu
@LucasDaprile
