{"id":213690,"date":"2026-03-31T22:23:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T22:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/213690\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T22:23:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T22:23:08","slug":"opossums-crash-psychology-class-after-falling-through-whitten-ceiling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/213690\/","title":{"rendered":"Opossums crash psychology class after falling through Whitten ceiling"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>One of the opossums that fell through the ceiling into Whitten LC 170 on the morning of Tuesday, March 31. \/\/ Photo via a student who wishes to remain unnamed. <\/p>\n

An opossum and its baby fell through the ceiling of Whitten LC 170 during a psychology class around 9 a.m. this morning.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A student who was in the classroom and wishes to remain unnamed said that students had been hearing \u201csounds of an animal running around in the ceiling\u201d throughout the class.<\/p>\n

\u201cA UM facilities employee had been called to the room when the students had first complained about the noise, but [he got] there at 8:58. He did not want to distract the class, [so he] left until our class usually would be over,\u201d she said. \u201cHowever, the [o]possums fell around two minutes later.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The opossums fell through the ceiling near the front of the classroom and landed next to the professor, Dr. Melissa Noya, while she was teaching her 8 a.m. PSY110 course.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Video of the opossum in the corner of Whitten LC 170 on the morning of Tuesday, March 31 after it fell through the ceiling. \/\/ Video via a student who wishes to remain unnamed. <\/p>\n

The unnamed student said that she heard a \u201cseries of clanging\u201d right before the opossums fell. Students gasped and some tried to climb onto the desks to avoid the opossums, but Dr. Noya instructed everyone to leave the room. As the student was leaving, she said the larger opossum appeared unconscious.<\/p>\n

After a few minutes of standing outside, the student said that everyone returned to the classroom to get their belongings because the older opossum was \u201cstaring at everyone in the corner and seemed frightened, while its baby was walking around observing everyone.\u201d She said that neither animal was hissing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Prior to the opossums falling through the ceiling, the student said it appeared in good condition. Now, three panels are missing from the ceiling and there is debris on the floor.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The three panels and debris on the floor after opossums fell through the ceiling of Whitten LC 170 on the morning of Tuesday, March 31. \/\/ Photo credit: Katie Karlson.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe safety of the campus community is our top priority. University Facilities and Operations staff responded immediately to the Whitten classroom and the two opossums were removed humanely,\u201d said the University of Miami in a statement to The Hurricane. \u201cThe animals did not come in contact with those in the classroom and the room and ceiling were secured.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The ceiling in Whitten 170 is designed so that the back of the classroom has paneling, the middle is solid, and the front of the classroom near the professor has a paneled ceiling that is lower than the rest of the classroom. The student suspects that the opossums ran from the back of the classroom to the front and fell onto the panels that are lower, causing them to fall through.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The staggered heights of the ceiling near the front of the Whitten LC 170 classroom on Tuesday, March 31. \/\/ Photo credit: Katie Karlson.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt made me wonder about the state of our infrastructure, especially when it comes to older buildings like Whitten LC,\u201d said the unnamed student. \u201cI had an exam later in the day in Whitten and I think I was more nervous about this [incident] repeating than the exam.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although the student originally identified the animals as \u201cpossums,\u201d the University confirmed that the animals are actually opossums<\/a>, marsupials with gray fur that are native to the Americas.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Opossums make their homes in roofs<\/a> when they are forced out of their normal territory, usually during the mating season. Once they find a safe spot, they are notoriously hard to remove.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Hurricane reached out to Dr. Noya for a comment and has not yet received a response.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the opossums that fell through the ceiling into Whitten LC 170 on the morning of Tuesday,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":213691,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-213690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213690\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}