Student Sues OSU For Tick Bites After Bat Infestation In Dorm

A Oklahoma State University student is suing the school after she was bitten multiple times by bat ticks while insider her dorm room. The ticks were inside the building because there was a bat infestation.

Mary Ledbetter had small red bites covering her face when she woke up in her room in OSU's Patchin Hall Dorm in 2019, according to the lawsuit filed in November. She washed her bedding and pajamas to get rid of whatever was biting her, but red marks continued to appear on her body overnight.

Ledbetter thought it might have been bed bugs, but a pest control employee found a bat tick on her bed. The ticks came with the bats living above her dorm room.

“During her first week she heard little feet noises running back and forth in her dorm room ceiling in the early morning hours,” the lawsuit states.

Her lawyer Randall Gill claims OSU knew about the bat infestation back in 2017 and didn't get rid of them or warn students about the problem.

KFOR reported that OSU sent an email in early March warning students that bats were seen in Patchin Hall and to "please be aware that as the year goes on this could happen again!"

Ledbetter was allowed to move into another pest-free building, but the lawsuit wants OSU to pay $175,000 for physical and emotional trauma.

Photo: Getty Images