FRATERNITY ACCUSED OF BRANDING
A Dartmouth College fraternity has been accused of branding new members while under suspension last fall, but the group’s lawyer denies that anyone was hazed or hurt. Alpha Delta was suspended in October for breaking alcohol rules during one party and hosting another without registering it with the college. Officials are now extending that suspension over new allegations that members were branded last fall. Attorney George Ostler said Wednesday that the fraternity acknowledges a small group of members voluntarily chose to get body brands, but that the practice was never a condition of membership and has since stopped.
Associated Press
A former University of Oklahoma fraternity member caught on video leading a racist chant said Wednesday he’s deeply sorry for his role in the incident and upset and embarrassed that he failed to stop it.
Flanked by several black Oklahoma City community leaders, including pastors and civil rights activists, Levi Pettit publicly apologized following a meeting with civic leaders at a Baptist Church on the city’s predominantly black northeast side.
“Some have wondered why I hadn’t spoken out publicly. The truth is I have had a mix of pain, shame, sorrow and fear over the consequences of my actions,” said Pettit, whose voice quivered slightly as he spoke. “I did not want to apologize to the press or to the whole country until I first came to apologize to those most directly impacted.”
Pettit, who is from the Dallas area, and several other members of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity at the university were caught on video engaging in the chant that referenced lynching and used a racial slur to describe how African-Americans would never become members.
Pettit answered a few questions from reporters but declined to say who taught him the chant or where he learned it.
“The truth is what was said in that chant is disgusting … and after meeting with these people I’ve learned these words should never be repeated,” Pettit said.
State Sen. Anastasia Pittman, the chair of Oklahoma’s Legislative Black Caucus, coordinated Wednesday’s meeting after Pettit reached out to her. Pittman, D-Oklahoma City, said she believes Pettit’s apology is genuine and that she has forgiven him.
“I admire his courage of reaching out to me and saying: ‘I want to meet with you face to face and apologize to you directly,’ ” Pittman said. “I believe he is sincere.”
Pettit said he also met Tuesday with leaders from OU’s football team, who he said accepted his apology.
Pettit’s parents issued an apology on his behalf two weeks ago after the video’s release caused an uproar on the university’s campus in Norman, 20 miles south of Oklahoma City. A second student from the Dallas area, Parker Rice, also issued a statement apologizing for his role in the chant.
OU President David Boren severed ties with the fraternity, ordered its members to vacate the fraternity house and expelled two for leading the chant. The university also launched an investigation into the role other fraternity members may have played in the chant, and Boren says further disciplinary action is possible.
Stephen Jones, an attorney for the now-disbanded local fraternity, said Wednesday that an agreement already has been reached with the university that calls for none of the fraternity members to be expelled. A spokesman for Boren would not confirm the agreement.
Boren’s press secretary Corbin Wallace said Boren would announce the results of the university’s investigation during a news conference Friday.
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