Discussion: University Of Oklahoma President May Take Action Against Racist Frat Members

Discussion for article #234104

I’m lovin’ this guy. NO QUARTER!

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"Under the civil rights law it may be possible for us to take action against certain individuals.

Does this mean students participating in this episode could be kicked out of school?

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Wonder who the brave soul was that sent the video…

Hope he won’t be 'punished ’ by his fRatBros.

That does seem to be what he’s saying.

May be from a heroic whistleblower. May be from someone who didn’t even realize it was showing stuff that was really bad.

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That’s a squirrelly issue I suppose. It’s the state’s public university. I’m sure they have codes of conduct and rules etc., and I’m guessing there would have to be some way of showing that they violated them. The chanting was obviously disgusting, but it’s also a free speech issue and gets a little more complicated since the school is associated with the state. Severing ties with the fraternity organization and kicking them out of the building was probably the easy part (I bet the school owns the building). Punishing the individuals for disgusting speech gets a little more tricky and strikes me as more of a behavior code violation as opposed to legally actionable as criminal or a tort. I’m guessing we’ll see some suspensions and/or probation for them and they’ll get a second chance.

That is, unless the school uncovers some sort of policy of routine discrimination in their pledging and who they accept into the frat, in which case there might be an expulsion or two. I dunno how they’d prove it or what the evidence would be. Having been in a frat myself, that stuff’s all pretty secret and certainly not recorded and “well, they only have white members” doesn’t quite suffice as the “proof” of systematic discrimination. Sure, the inference seems easy in light of the video, but I think they need something more concrete.

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Me too. More institutions need to respond to hatred as unequivocally as he is.

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Might be difficult to expel them. The school might have a “Code” for ethical behavior, yes. But that might not stand up in court if there is an attempt to expel them. The ACLU would actually take the side of the frat students on this one. But, the kids might not want a court case, that would bring them very unwanted attention. I’d go for expulsion

They could though be banned from certain programs, make this part of their permanent record, etc.

Complex issue, it will be interesting how far the OU President goes with this, he seems pretty feisty. Hope he does expel them, or at least suspend them. But I would limit it to organizers and chanters. If someone was not participating or was telling them to shut up, you don’t expel them. And it’s possible the person who sent the video was against them too. But also possible they sent it to a person thinking they would find it funny, and then that person went public with it.

A good investigation should clear up who should get the disciplinary action or expulsion.

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Have to be very careful on this one. Certainly the ringleaders can be punished, but this was a bus full of people. New pledges might not have approved, but at the same time were hesitant to speak out against the upper classmen. When you feel like you are alone in your position, on a rowdy bus, it would be very very hard to speak up. Even if you were actually in the majority. It shouldn’t be too hard to find out who was on the bus, and in talking to them find out who the ring leaders were. Expel those guys, and ban the others from joining any other fraternities.

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Thanks for that. There are two other comments replying to mine, and expulsion seems to be iffy for a variety of reasons.