UF ZBT To Close Following Allegations That They Disrespected Wounded Veterans
The ZBT chapter has shut down as a result of the allegations from the Panama City trips.
From University Of Florida:
The University of Florida chapter of Zeta Beta Tau will close in the wake of misconduct allegations following a recent weekend event in Panama City Beach, officials from the national organization and the University of Florida announced Tuesday. The closure is effective immediately.
Both the university and the national fraternity will continue to investigate.
We can all agree that no one deserves respect more than men and women in uniform. They fight for our country, risking their lives every day. We live in the land of the free because of the brave. They deserve to be honored and aided when they return from active duty, and the fine people of Panama City Beach have done that bi-annually for the past six years, hosting an event called the Warrior Beach Retreat. Members of the Panama City Beach community donate condos and hotel rooms, restaurant meals, gift baskets, fishing trips, movies, tours, attraction tickets, car rentals, as well as money in an effort to give wounded warriors and their caregiver a week of rest and relaxation. Unfortunately, the retreat last week didn’t go as planned, and even more regrettably, it was due to a fraternity.
Last week’s Warrior Beach Retreat was held at the Lake Town Wharf Resort, which happened to be the same location that members of Zeta Beta Tau from the University of Florida and Emory University were staying at for their spring formal. And it would seem that some members of those chapters do not hold the same respect for the military that the rest of us do.
Linda Cope, founder of the Warrior Beach Retreat, says she was disgusted the behavior she witnessed by the fraternity members. “They were urinating on the American flag and they were throwing things off of the balconies. There was a group of very intoxicated college kids that actually ripped the American flag out of the ground and was trying to run around with it.”
Even worse? How they treated the soldiers they were sharing the hotel with. “They actually spit on me and my service dog as well and that’s just so disrespectful and it hurts. I come and I feel honored and I feel safe and that I belong, but now I feel like I’m defending myself,” said wounded veteran Nicholas Connole told WJHG.
Cope did receive a letters of apology from both the President of UF and the President of the UF ZBT chapter, but has yet to hear anything from the Emory chapter or the university. Personally, I challenge both of these chapters to make this right. Perhaps instead of having a formal next year, you should instead donate your social budget to the Warrior Beach Retreat to make up for the trip that you ruined for some deserving soldiers and those that take care of them. Donations can be made at their website.
[Via WJHG]
Fuck those guys.
10 years ago at 10:53 amThis is pathetic.
10 years ago at 10:55 amWhat’s really pathetic is that the uf brothers won’t suffer severe consequences because the national president is uf alu
10 years ago at 11:13 amThat’s shit what that fraternity did, it doesn’t look good on fraternities as a whole, but if anything I’m glad that TFM writes about things like this, when people are wrong they should be put in the spotlight but maybe even more so if they do something good, and TFM does that. That’s what I like to see, and TFM gets a shit for some of the articles they post, but they’re doing this right.
10 years ago at 10:56 amActually unfathomable.
10 years ago at 10:57 amSounds like some Geed behavior, the pledging process should have been able to weed out some of these dumb fucks that disrespect this country more than Michael Moore . Shame on them, when fraternities as a whole are trying to recoup from the SAE incident and now we have a new headline… “Terrorists in Fraternities?”
10 years ago at 10:59 amFucking grow up assholes. Sincerely, everyone from this website.
are you fucking kidding me, the one good thing fraternities are widely known for (supporting America and those who defend her) and now we can’t even rely on this? Who the fuck pisses on the flag, I hope every member of that Chapter who participated gets pissed on
10 years ago at 11:01 amIf the ZBT Isis Chapter has a house at UF, it should be the duty for every other fraternity on campus to fuck with them. Shit on their lawn, steal their toilet seats, burn their letters, and smash their ladies!
10 years ago at 2:37 pmZBTs don’t go for women though…
10 years ago at 3:02 pmDamn shame. Not much else to say about it.
10 years ago at 11:05 amCongratulations uf and Emory you just made every ZBT look like an asshole. People need to realize that their actions unfortunately affect more than just them.
10 years ago at 11:07 amCaring about our reputation is still less significant than how horrible the actions of these idiots are don’t get me wrong
10 years ago at 11:10 amGo to ZBT at UCF page’s and read the comments left there from angry veterans.
10 years ago at 11:14 amJust read them idk why they’re getting cut up. I guess they’re lumping all zeebs together unfortunately
10 years ago at 11:40 amWhen one does something stupid, all associated will feel the repercussions.
This is just another example.
10 years ago at 2:32 pmUniversity of south Florida is getting attacked now also I hope uf is proud
10 years ago at 11:47 amUSF ZBT is a fucking disgrace. Bunch of goobers.. Ya’ll almost won cheertoss but second place doesn’t make you anything other than bottom tier
10 years ago at 3:06 pmHow about instead of suspending fraternities for making pledges drive drunk brothers home, suspend these disrespectful fucks for not only making the university and their national organization look like shit, but for disrespecting veterans, our country and apparently mans best friend. As a fraternity member and a military member, I am fucking disgusted.
10 years ago at 11:09 amI hate saying this and I’ll get lapped, which I accept (Tuco). Is there proof and actual acknowledgement that they pissed on the flag? Ninety percent of service members are heroes and are cool. But there is a small percentage that are SJWs in uniform and narcissistically demand deference in public. If they did spit and piss, shame on them. But if their normal rowdy behavior simply offended, I’d like to wait for more facts.
10 years ago at 11:16 amAccording to the Panama City Herald:
10 years ago at 11:47 am” Social-media postings alleged fraternity members tossed bottles off balconies on top of veterans below and also stole flags off vehicles.”
You would think bottles being tossed would cause the police to be called. All of these are just allegations made on social media.
I contacted a friend who is a ZBT. He says they have receipts that show they bought nothing but cans of beer.
He claims one of the brothers spilled some beer accidentally on one guy but that they did not receive complaints while they were there. He said he did notice a few wives who were not happy with scantily clad sorority girls around their husbands and that’s what may have started these anonymous allegations on social media.
Not trying to jump the gun on a judgement, but I feel that that is more likely a scenario. If these chapters of ZBT did this, fuck ’em. But, I don’t believe that the culture of GLO’s would allow the production of an entire chapter exhibiting such behavior.
Being Greek and only having been in the reserves about a year, perhaps I’m not the best to speak, but American military culture produces a sort of awkward humility about the ideal of service. I think most veterans on the spot would grab the flag from them and tell them to screw off, but media outcry would be more akin to surrounding civilians and relatives – who in light of recent events in Greek life may be prone to skewing what happened.
Again, not condoning this if it actually happened, but the destruction of a flag and disrespect towards veterans is just extremely uncharacteristic of a fraternity.
10 years ago at 12:16 pmI applaud you guys for fact checking. People have biases and love to get offended and smear groups they dont like. I agree if these kids are guilty FUCK THEM they should no better as fraternity men to not do that. It was most likely some rowdy behavior that offended a few people so they smeared the fraternity…just like the UVA story people so often react to these things on emotion rather than logic.If i am wrong and those kids did that all i can say is FUCK THOSE KIDS
10 years ago at 1:24 pmI just did some independent investigative journalism. I spoke with Sabrina from Lake Town Wharf Resort and I spoke with Linda who operates the Warrior Beach Retreat.
10 years ago at 12:16 pmSabrina tells me that this weekend they were at 95% capacity which means they had about 3,000 guests.
Linda tells me that the WBR had 60 veterans present. They are only allowed to bring a spouse and no children. Now I want you to think about this. There are four separate hotels on this Lake Wharf Property. Of these 3,000 guests, only 60 were vets. I find it hard to believe that ZBT identified these 60 vets out of 3,000+ guests and specifically targeted them. If they were targeted, how did the vets know they were an actual fraternity member and not some random dude out of the 3,000 guests?
Come to your own conclusion.
I love you.
10 years ago at 12:19 pmIt’s not hard to pick out a veteran at a veteran’s rally. It’s also not hard to pick out a piece of shit frat boy in PCB. I’m sure they had ZBT tanks on or something or were carrying around their fraternity flag like it means anything.
10 years ago at 10:44 amI come from a military family. My dad talks about the “attention moochers”. These are vets and active who desperately crave any and all public attention for their service. They are the opposite of the Quiet Professional. He also said to be cautious of those who want to honor you. The waiting list for this particular Beach Warrior program is 4 months.
10 years ago at 2:53 pmThe organization depends on donations. This could be a publicity stunt to raise money, after all isn’t that what 2Broke Girls suggested at the end of the article?
I also think fraternities are being singled out by hotels and resorts because it is a popular thing to do right now. It’s an easy way to get attention and possibly get money.
If I were a SJW nerd, I would divide and conquer two Greek Life and Veterans. Something to think about.
Oh yeah, where are all of the phone videos of frat boys throwing bottles and pissing on flags?
The manager of the resort told me they have extensive 24 hour security and that they heard nothing about these alleged incidents until they heard about social media complaints.
The parents of a friend of mine, was there this weekend. He witness rowdiness (surprise surprise) intoxication (again surprise) but nothing of what is being said. Actually what they did witness is some vets talking, laughing, partying, playing on the beach and even having some beers with these frat boys. If they were from Emory or Uf it didnt matter because they were all from ZBT. No police were ever called. Spitting from 20 floors up?
10 years ago at 5:48 pmI agree with you, Generic, but unfortunately I had to lap you on principle.
10 years ago at 5:19 pmAll I know is that the more I read the more “exaggerated” or more is added to the story by this one lady doing the interviews. I don’t know, it almost seems like it’s being used for free propaganda to get money donated for the charity. My father and brothers are vets, so don’t get me wrong. But I just find it too strange. I heard there was a lot of police presence there due to something that had occured in Panama City the previous week and for no one to have been arrested? Something smells very fishy.
10 years ago at 1:42 pm