Snowball Fight At Kent State Draws Hundreds, Coronavirus Concerns

KENT, OH — It's the heart of winter, the middle of a pandemic, and you are stuck on a college campus during a mega snowstorm.

Snowball fight?

That was the answer fore students stuck on campus at Kent State University over the long weekend who were understandably seeking some fun.

Several hundred students and others at Kent State staged a huge snowball fight Monday night, one that had moments captured on video by KentWired, an independently run news source for students at the northeast Ohio school. It came amid a snowstorm that dumped anywhere from 2.5 to 5 inches of snow in northeast Ohio, a weather report from Cleveland.com shows.

Anywhere from 300 to 500 people gathered near the school's Taylor Hall late Monday night, according to a News-5-Cleveland report, for what the station described as "an old-fashioned" snowball fight. The event was planned on a GroupMe chat that included about 1,100 people, KentWired reported.

As the mass of people headed down a hill behind the residence hall, one person yelled out some sort of battle cry and "everyone took charge," the report states. In addition to snowballs, participants threw laundry baskets, Xbox controllers and potatoes, it said.

The fight went on for more than a half-hour before police arrived and broke it up, multiple reports state.

Some on social media criticized the students — not for the snowball fight itself but for holding any gathering of that size during the coronavirus pandemic.

Even as the country's vaccine rollout continues and case numbers drop nationally, the virus continues to spread in Ohio. The Buckeye State had a 3,351 21-day case average as of Tuesday, according to the Ohio Department of Health.

"Can you say superspreader?" one Twitter user commented on the video, apparently referring to the risk of spreading the virus.

KentWired reported that most people were wearing masks, but some weren't.

Many weren't sober either, according to the report.

"Many people showed up to the event under the influence of various substances," it stated. "There were also numerous chants going around, body surfing, and a few non-violent fights."

And not all who took part in the snowball fight were Kent State students, according to KentWired.

As impressive as it may have been, it was still a far cry from the more than 7,600 who participated in the world-record largest snowball fight during a 2016 gathering in Canada.