One of the hottest gifts this holiday season seems to be getting a little too hot.
“Hoverboards” have been bursting into flames all across the country, sending people to the hospital and causing plenty of damage, and now some schools are taking steps to prevent a disaster on campus.
So far locally, Georgia Southern University has banned the boards from campus entirely and Armstrong State University has banned them from on-campus housing.
“We wanted students to know, before they move back on campus tomorrow, that they did not need to bring them back to campus because of the safety concerns,” said Director of Residence Life for ASU, Nick Shrader. “We take the safety of our residents very seriously and that could cause a major scale fire in an apartment or residence hall or apartment community.”
More than 20 schools across the country have banned hoverboards.
Shrader told News 3 the conversation about whether they belong on campus or not started just a few days ago, but moved quickly, and he thinks they’re just a couple of days from banning them at the school outright.
“In my time here at Armstrong, this is the fastest moving train that I have seen in terms of us coming together to decide to ban an item residentially and on campus.”
As for other local schools, a Savannah State University spokespersons said they currently do not have any restrictions on the boards, and SCAD is treating them like normal skateboards; meaning students can have them, they just cant be used indoors.
GSU released this statement:“Restricting hoverboards on campus is based on our primary goal of safety for all Georgia Southern community members as, across the country, there have been several fires and injuries linked to hoverboards. Therefore, we believe it is our responsibility to disallow these devices on campus until more is known about them.”
