For those who missed it, there was a major development this weekend in the case of the vandalizing of James Meredith's statue at Ole Miss. It turns out the three freshmen who pulled this stunt were members of Ole Miss' chapter of Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity. When this came to light, the chapter voted the bottom-feeders out in short order, and the national organization suspended the chapter's operations pending an internal investigation. I diaried on this here.
On Sunday, the chapter's president made his first public comments on the incident. Apparently he learned on Wednesday that the three freshmen were SigEps--and before the day was out, all three of them were gone.
"I learned about their involvement on Wednesday afternoon. By Wednesday night, the chapter had voted to expel all three, and we reported the information to the university and authorities," said SigEp president Jeremy Smith in written answers released by the fraternity's national headquarters.
Smith, of St. Petersburg, Fla., said members of the brotherhood were "offended and outraged" at the knowledge that the three students who tied a noose around the neck of the Meredith statue and draped an old Georgia flag which features the confederate battle flag on it were SigEps.
"That three students who previously identified with our fraternity could do something like this has been a humbling experience," Smith said. "It has forced us to reconsider the process we use to evaluate new members and the assumption that this kind of behavior couldn’t occur in 2014."
SigEp takes great pride in being the first national fraternity to open its doors to all races. This happened in 1959. Smith said in no uncertain terms that anyone who vandalizes a monument to a national civil rights leader "has absolutely no place in our fraternity." He also vowed to ensure that this never happens again.
There are some who think the national office may have been too heavy-handed in suspending the local chapter since the local house acted so quickly in throwing these bottom-feeders out. But to my mind, a suspension was the only acceptable response. It's very likely that somebody at the fraternity knew what these bottom-feeders were planning to do and did nothing to stop it. You cannot tolerate that, ever.
Local officials aren't sure if they can find a state charge to levy against the three freshmen--though to my non-lawyer's mind, this would seem to be a case of vandalism. Federal officials are looking into hate-crimes charges, though it may be difficult to prove that a threat was intended. But I don't think anyone would have a problem at all with these three, and any other individual member who knew about this and didn't report it, being smacked down hard by the student judicial system. Even if no criminal charges are handed up, anything Ole Miss can do to hold people accountable for this could sting just as much in the long run as criminal charges. Try explaining to a potential employer why you pulled this stunt, or why you knew about it and didn't report it.