Midway through lunch today, September 21, a group of freshmen set off a “fart bomb” in the library. An odor strongly associated with that of rotten eggs spread quickly through the library and continued out toward the hall, the tutorial room and the computer room.

“I didn’t notice it until Ms. Bridges came to me saying ‘something smells funny,’” librarian Gordon Jack said.

After the fumes began to circulate, many of the students in the library left to get away from the “rottenness”, many of them laughing over the obvious “prank”.

“I thought the bell had rung, and that was why everyone was leaving the library,” freshman Amanda Bauer said. “Then I went into the library and the smell instantly hit me.”

Jack sought out the source of the excitement and discovered a small plastic bag that was drenched in the stench. The bag, printed with the words “fart bomb”, releases its smell after a small bubble of liquid in the foil is squeezed and mixes with the contained chemicals inside to pop the bag open.

“It was a group of freshmen and that’s all we know,” Jack said. “We don’t have names or IDs but we have some eyewitnesses that we will be following up on. We know the group of people who were sitting at the table where [the fart bomb] was left.”

The librarians were forced to spray air fresheners in the library room so that the smell would not overcome the students visiting after lunch.

“Jokes aside, it was a real bummer for classes like Mr. Donnelly’s who had to work in the library and smell that,” said Jack. “That’s when it was no longer funny.”

The smell was potent long after the bomb was set off. Classes as late as seventh period continued to comment on the rotten smell of the room.

“It just smelled really funky,” junior Michelle Staufenbiel said.