KSU snowball fight aftermath: 400 students, 2 police officers and many viral videos

Gianna DaPra, TV2 Reporter

Hundreds of kids gathered outside Taylor hall for a snowball fight on Feb. 15, but when police showed up, the students weren’t shy of running up the biggest and even iciest hills on Kent State’s campus.

With over 400 students, two police officers and many viral videos later, this snowball fight was bound to make some noise on campus.

“You know, a snowball fight is not an illegal thing,” said safety Police Officer, Trisha Knoles.   

It all started with a GroupMe that contained over 1,200 students, averaging about 10 new people per minute.

The event quickly filled with people around 10:30 p.m. and lasting until 11:20 p.m.

“It was just filled with people having a snowball fight, sledding and just hanging out. It felt like we were in a movie,” viral Tok Tok star Alyssa Gillis said.

That was until the police showed up with flashlights beaming at the group of people.

“We originally got a call last night that there was approximately 100 people outside of Taylor hall… that there were several people that were consuming alcohol in public,” Knoles said.

As the police arrived, the students ran for the hills leaving a few items behind.

“They saw several cans of alcohol on the ground and for some odd reason, potatoes,” Knoles said laughing.

This brings the question, if there was not alcohol involved, would the police even show up?

“There could have been a possibility of getting them involved,” Knoles said.

With the police involved, the dispersing of the students has gained some social media attention.

Gillis, who attended the event for 10 minutes before leaving, posted a video to Tik Tok of the students running. That video now has over four million views and one million likes.

“You just see two cops walking in and everyone started running for their lives,” Gillis said explaining her video.

 Although, every viral video does come with some backlash in the comments. 

“There was just a bunch of people that were upset about the fact that we’re in a pandemic,” Gillis said. 

As the pandemic is still here, Undergraduate Student Government President Tiera Moore explains the importance for the future of Kent.

“I think especially looking forward to the fall, we have to think about how these events are going to impact the university’s decisions,” Moore said.

Then looking into Monday nights event: “I just hope that you know, every person involved was safe,” Moore said. 

Gianna DaPra is a TV2 reporter. Contact her at [email protected].