Bates College has sent home an undisclosed number of students for violating the school’s pandemic restrictions.
Student offenses included repeatedly missing COVID-19 tests, ignoring face mask and social distancing requirements and bringing outsiders into dorms, said Josh McIntosh, vice president for campus life.
The punished students were “surprised by the seriousness with which we have taken these infractions, and by the swiftness with which” the school acted, McIntosh said in an online notice posted on Friday.
The students will learn remotely until allowed on campus. Continued student violations could threaten in-person courses or force the closure of the campus, McIntosh said.
The Lewiston college’s nearly 1,800 students returned to the campus in September for the first time since it closed in March. Bates officials said in April that the virus had cost the school up to $2 million.