Twenty-two Provo High School junior ROTC cadets became light-headed and dizzy and a few blacked out Thursday afternoon Nov. 14 in Brigham Square, during the Patriots Day parade.

"We were just standing here in the Wilkinson Center and they pulled in a girl who was looking pretty scary and started treating her," said Hilary Powell, 19, a sophomore with an open major, from Sandy. "Then they started to pull in more and more kids and it got to be a large number of kids, then the police and ambulance showed up."

The junior cadets came to BYU to learn more about the ROTC program and to put training they receive into practice, said Sergeant Blask, non-commissioned officer in charge of the BYU ROTC detachment.

"We invited the Provo High students to come and participate and we had several students fall ill from standing at attention too long," Blask said.

Provo and BYU Emergency Medical Services treated the cadets for shock and light-headedness, before the cadets were released to junior ROTC administrators, Blask said

"They started pulling out the kids once they saw that they (the cadets) were starting to get woozy," said Chris Stromberg, 18, a freshman with an open major from St. Louis, Mo.

The cadets were pulled out of the formation they were in before they completely passed out so that they wouldn't fall and hurt themselves, Blask said.

"We only called out the paramedics as a precaution to have each child checked out, because they are minors," Blask said. "We just wanted to make sure they were medically fit before we released them."

The major cause of the students' dizziness was the position they were standing in, Blask said.

"If someone locks their knees and doesn't move their legs around then they very well could pass out or experience dizziness," said Dr. Robert Romney, Medical Director of the BYU medical center.

Another cause was the students didn't get a complete meal before the event, Blask said.

"Any of the ROTC students here on BYU campus are required to eat a full meal before an event like this, but a lot of the High School students didn't do that, which was one of the causes for the symptoms they felt," Blask said.



Copyright Brigham Young University 14 Nov 2002