Fraternity members suspended
Second offensive video surfaces
Over a dozen members of the Theta Tau fraternity at Syracuse University have been suspended after a second video of lewd behavior emerged over the weekend.
Eighteen students were pulled “from academic participation” after a pair of videos showed them taking part in offensive skits, the latest of which showed a mock assault on a handicapped person, Department of Public Safety Chief Bobby Maldonado said in a statement Sunday night.
The decision was made out of “an abundance of caution and ongoing concern for our campus community,” the safety official added.
“Alternative class and study arrangements will be made for these students as the judicial process moves forward,” he said.
The Central New York school has condemned the contents of the first video, which Chancellor Kent Syverud said in a separate statement displayed “extreme and egregious racism, sexism, ableism, anti-Semitism and homophobia.”
The second recording showed frat members pretending to sexually assault a disabled person.
“I ask all of us who care about our community and its values to reaffirm them by emphatically rejecting all this video represents,” Syverud said of the second recording. “There is absolutely no place at Syracuse University for tolerance of this behavior.”
Maldonado said all 18 suspended students were present at the time of the recordings.