UMass Amherst students suspended for partying outside without masks

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Three Massachusetts college students were suspended after school administrators saw a photo of the trio at an off-campus party, outside and unmasked, according to reports.

“There was a photo sent to the administration of these girls outside off-campus on a Saturday. This is why they lost a whole semester of their schooling,” one parent told CBS’s Boston affiliate, WBZ-TV.

It’s unclear when the photo was taken and whether the young women had been vaccinated at the time they attended the party.

The freshman were cut off from virtual learning after being suspended and barred from taking their finals, meaning they will have to redo the semester, their parents griped.

“That negates this whole semester, $16,000 of money and they have to reapply for next semester. But they missed housing registration,” a father of one of the kids, identified only as Scott, told the station.

A surge of COVID-19 cases at the school in February prompted restrictions, but by April when the UMass hockey team won the national championship, athletes were seen celebrating, some without masks, as they arrived back on campus to a large crowd, according to a report.

The school said in a statement that students have gotten “a number of public health messages this semester that emphasized the importance of following public health protocols and the consequences for not complying, and those messages were also shared on UMass social media channels.”

The university did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Post.

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