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2015-04-24 Home Front: Culture Wars

ZBT 'taunted disabled veterans, urinated on flag, and spat on a wounded solider and his service dog'

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Posted by Besoeker 2015-04-24 11:41|| || Front Page|| [5 views ] Top

#1 Update from Fox News:

Zeta Beta Tau International confirmed that three members of the University of Florida chapter have been expelled from the fraternity and both university chapters have suspended all activities.

âThere is no doubt that some of our members engaged in ugly and unacceptable behavior,â Executive Director Laurence Bolotin wrote in a statement. âTheir actions have no place in ZBT or anywhere, and they will not be tolerated.â

Bolotin issued a personal apology to the veterans and their families as well as the Warrior Beach Retreat organization â calling the behavior disgusting.

âI am deeply saddened that the actions of our members ruined this special event and failed to show the respect our military and their families deserve,â he wrote.

To the fraternityâs credit, they have promised to make amends for what they called a âdisgraceful situation.â

W. Kent Fuchs, the president of the University of Florida, wrote a personal apology to Cope and the Warrior Beach Retreat.

âI can only imagine the pain and indignity of enduring this behavior,â he wrote. âI want to assure you that it is not representative of our students or our university and we will make every effort to learn more, take appropriate action and prevent similar incidents from occurring again.â

Emory University, on the other hand, said it cannot confirm that any of their students were involved in the despicable behavior.

âIf any members of our community are identified as being responsible, they will be held accountable for their actions by the university,â read a statement from the Georgia school.

Posted by trailing wife 2015-04-24 14:58|| 2015-04-24 14:58|| Front Page Top

#2 Yahoo adds:

The Gainesville Sun (http://bit.ly/1Hzr5jz) reports that the fraternity is on conduct probation for a hazing incident in the fall semester. The fraternity has suspended operations and is cooperating with the investigation.

"Being on probation means the organization faces increased consequences if they are found to have violated the probation requirements," university spokeswoman Janine Sikes said.

Cope said hotel security got the situation under control and the fraternity members were evicted the next morning. The fraternity sent a letter of apology to Cope. She said she looks forward to the outcome of the investigations.

"They apologized to me in person, but only because they got caught," she said.

Posted by trailing wife 2015-04-24 15:02|| 2015-04-24 15:02|| Front Page Top

#3 I can't claim any cleverness in searching out links once Besoeker posted the story. The first entry of my search threw up the Wikipedia page for the fraternity, which already has this incident in some detail, along with the links I quoted above. Clearly, except perhaps at Emory U, this is being taken very seriously indeed.

Posted by trailing wife 2015-04-24 15:09|| 2015-04-24 15:09|| Front Page Top

#4 When I went to engineering school in Berkeley in the ~~fabulous wigged out~~ anarchistic 1960s, we did not have time to mess with stupid stuff like fraternity behavior. We hated the fraternities and all they stood for.

Posted by Alaska Paul 2015-04-24 15:54|| 2015-04-24 15:54|| Front Page Top

#5 Wasn't in that mode during school either, AP.

They did usually have cute girls at their parties, though.

Posted by Mullah Richard 2015-04-24 16:46|| 2015-04-24 16:46|| Front Page Top

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