CALIFORNIA BRIEFING / LOS ANGELES
A mischievous honor society at USC caused a brief stir on campus Wednesday when it distributed fliers warning students and faculty of a potentially dangerous airborne pathogen and asking them to report to a treatment tent near the Tommy Trojan statue.
USC spokesman James Grant said the Skull and Dagger society, which stages an annual spring prank, was behind the hoax. He said officials asked the group to dismantle the tent and stop the prank about 9 a.m. after receiving calls from a number of worried students and faculty.
More than 300 USC students were sickened last fall in an outbreak of a virus.
-- Rebecca Trounson
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