OU's Beta Theta Pi fraternity has indefinitely suspended a member of its chapter after a viral Facebook post described the student using harmful rhetoric on Campus Corner early Thursday.
The Facebook post, written by River Sky Eagle at 3:20 a.m. Thursday, alleges that OU student and Beta fraternity member Jackson Harris yelled “Colored people are poor,” among other things, in front of New York Pizza on Campus Corner during an altercation between two groups of people around 1:45 a.m. Thursday.
The post also alleged that an unidentified female accompanying Harris “tried to fight a group of Native Americans” and kicked their car.
Harris said that the allegations made against him are "absolutely false."
The post has been shared over 1,000 times on social media and garnered thousands of comments. When the Daily spoke with Eagle on the phone, he confirmed and reiterated the incident described in the post.
The executive committee of OU's Beta Theta Pi chapter has placed Harris on immediate indefinite suspension and is conducting an internal investigation. Appropriate disciplinary action will be taken based on the findings of the investigation, according to a statement from Lane Prado, the chapter's president.
The alleged actions contradict the fraternity's principles, the statement said.
"This behavior, if true, is completely unacceptable and will not be tolerated by our chapter or the rest of our members," the Beta statement reads. "To any members of the community that may have been hurt by the harmful rhetoric reported as being used by one of our members we offer our deepest sympathies."
The Norman Police Department was not involved in the incident, so there is no police report available, public information officer Sarah Jensen said.
Jensen said the behavior alleged in the post is not criminal and police will not be investigating the incident. The statements made by Harris are not classified as hate speech because nothing was said in a threatening nature, Jensen said.
Erin Yarbrough, OU interim vice president for public affairs, said the university has been made aware of the off-campus incident.
“The University of Oklahoma values and supports all of our students irrespective of their ethnic backgrounds or social economic status,” Yarbrough said in an email. “We are looking into the incident via appropriate university protocol.”
Yarbrough said protocol involves looking into the incident further to determine if a code violation occurred.
Update: This post was updated at 5 p.m. Friday after the Daily spoke with Eagle on the phone.
