ODU 'flash mob’ fizzles before it gets too spicy

NORFOLK

What was supposed to be fast and fun turned a bit furious at Old Dominion University’s Perry Library late Thursday when campus police had to use pepper spray to clear a “flash mob.”

As many as 500 people – some dressed in bizarre costumes – stormed the building’s lobby just before 10 p.m. to mark the start of final exams.

It was at least the second time in a week that college students staged such a stunt  in Virginia. Video of a Sunday event at James Madison University in Harrisonburg shows hundreds swarming a library . Within minutes, students are crowd-surfing, tossing toilet paper rolls, and jumping from a balcony as people scream and cheer.

ODU’s flash mob, organized on the social networking site Facebook, appears to have been much shorter-lived. Campus police, tipped off just before the event, watched closely as students headed inside the library, said university spokeswoman Jennifer Mullen.

When the crowd reached upwards of 400, police asked the city of Norfolk for assistance.

Officers tried to disperse students with “verbal commands,” Mullen said. When that didn’t work, they began using pepper spray, although it wasn’t aimed at anyone directly.

“It’s called clearing a space,” she said.

Students had gathered at a  parking garage a half-hour earlier, said Bryoney Hayes, an  ODU student and an editor of the campus newspaper,  The Mace & Crown.

One person was dressed as a Christmas tree, one as  a banana , and another as a doughnut, Hayes said.

“It got kind of crazy trying to get through the sensors,” Hayes said. “We got in and nobody could move, it was so packed.”

Within several minutes, word spread that police were there with pepper spray, she said. The crowd broke up.

No one was arrested or injured, Mullen said, although a sensor near the doorway was damaged.

The event was the first of its kind that she had heard of at ODU, although the Facebook page shows that a similar stunt was planned at the Webb University Center in May. A description reads: “The group will rush into the end of Webb where the restaurants are. It will not last very long, maybe 10 minutes, but it will be epic.”

Megan Morrow, photo editor for  The Mace & Crown,  said she waited inside the library to snap pictures. As 10 p.m. neared, students exchanged furtive glances. Then people rushed in.

“People were jumping around, chanting, 'ODU,’ crowd-surfing,” she said. “It just kind of went wild.”

Kristin Davis, (757) 222-5555, kristin.davis@pilotonline.com