Indiana University fraternity suspended after video surfaces showing apparent initiation sex act

As a video circulated online on 7 October showing what appeared to be a sexual hazing ritual at an Indiana University fraternity, some who saw it shrugged. Others thought it was funny, tweeting “LOL” and “LMAO.”

Some, however, thought it was rape.

Late on 7 October, the university weighed in, announcing via Twitter that it was suspending Alpha Tau Omega “immediately, pending investigation into hazing allegations.”

On the morning of 8 October, the fraternity’s national leadership issued a harshly worded statement calling the video “highly offensive” and promising “swift disciplinary action.”

The video, which still could be found on YouTube, Twitter and other Web sites early on 8 October, appears to capture a fraternity hazing party. In the 29-second cellphone video, a male pledge in nothing but boxer shorts is seen performing a sex act on a naked woman atop a dirty inflatable mattress.

The woman is on her back with her legs around the pledge, as if restraining him. At one point, he appears to try to get up but she prevents him.

Six other men in underwear, likely other pledges, appear to wait their turn as music plays and a crowd of fully clothed people shouts and laughs.

It is unclear from the footage where the incident occurs or which fraternity is involved.

However, the video was quickly linked to Alpha Tau Omega, known as ATO. At 7:38 p.m. on 7 October, an account called @ATOVideo posted the footage to Twitter.

The first Web site to mention the video appears to have been the college humor site Total Frat Move, which has broken fraternity hazing and sex scandals in the past. Earlier on 7 October, the site posted a short article discussing the video without mentioning ATO.

“We received the below tip this evening, along with a few others, about a leaked video that allegedly shows some graphic and egregious fraternity hazing at Indiana University,” Total Frat Move’s Dillon Cheverere wrote.

“[Fraternity redacted] at Indiana university leaked a video by accident that involved them hazing their pledges by making them give strippers oral sex for extended periods of time,” according to the tip. “The video has gone viral and is circulating around IU’s campus as well as other campuses in the midwest region.”

“I can’t confirm much of anything at this point,” Cheverere concluded. “Oh, I can confirm this: This story is about to blow” up.

Shortly afterward, IU posted its tweet suspending ATO.

Cheverere updated his article, adding: “So the worst kept secret is no longer a secret at all. It was ATO, and they are now suspended.”

Statements from university spokesperson Mark Land appeared to strengthen the connection between the video, ATO and the fraternity’s suspension.

In a news release sent late on 7 October to local NBC affiliate WTHR, Land said that ATO had been suspended due to “allegations of hazing activities which perpetuate sexual misconduct.” He added that ATO local chapter would not be allowed to host social events, participate in interfraternity events or sponsor new members while under suspension.

“The university is fully committed to fostering a culture of care and respect on our campuses,” he said. “Allegations of actions that run contrary to that commitment are taken very seriously and will be investigated vigorously.”

Despite the university’s move to suspend the fraternity, some took issue with the school’s initial tweet.

“That wasn’t hazing that was RAPE you clowns,” responded a Twitter user whose tweets suggest he is a former IU student. “Quit the double standards.”

The university tweeted a clarification, the Indianapolis Star reported.

Online reactions to the video and ATO’s suspension ranged from bemusement to outrage.

“Quit being a bunch of overreacting cry babies,” one person wrote on Twitter, adding an emoticon of a baby.

“Are you f—– serious?” a female Twitter user in Bloomington, where IU is located, replied. “Check your privilege. That is rape.”

“If you are ever witnessing something like this and the person is struggling, please for the love of God STOP IT,” wrote one IU student on Twitter, referring to the apparently forced sex act on the video.

The incident is not the first for Alpha Tau Omega’s IU chapter. In 1992, IU charged 26 ATO brothers with violating student ethics after a pledge was hospitalized for alcohol poisoning. Among the charges: possession and consumption of alcoholic beverages, hazing, actions that endanger a student and giving false information to university officials, Richard McKaig, then the dean of students, told the Chicago Tribune.

The fraternity announced it was going “substance free” shortly after but quickly backslid.

“The first year, it was a mark of distinction and pride,” McKaig told the Star-Ledger in 1997. “The second year, it wasn’t their idea. And in the third year, it became a burden.”

In 2010, two-thirds of its members were kicked out after an investigation by ATO’s national leadership found evidence of hazing and alcohol violations, the Associated Press reported.

At the time, ATO national chief executive Wynn Smiley said that IU chapter members had denied knowing about hazing rituals and didn’t acknowledge a low chapter grade point average, according to the AP.

Smiley said some members had an attitude that the fraternity’s purpose was to be “party central.”

On the morning of 8 October, ATO’s national leadership sent The Washington Post a statement distancing itself from its IU chapter.

“Alpha Tau Omega National Fraternity has suspended all operations of the Delta Alpha chapter at Indiana University as we begin our investigation,” began the statement, which was attributed to Smiley. “We are working with the University.”

“The video is highly offensive and is antithetical to the values of Alpha Tau Omega,” the statement continued. “If confirmed, swift disciplinary action will be taken. The men who were a part of such a vulgar incident do not represent the fraternity and damage the fraternity’s name for thousands of ATO undergraduates and alumni across the country.”

Copyright: Washington Post