Bad fraternity behavior hit another unbelievable low last weekend when members of the University of Florida Zeta Beta Tau fraternity at a beach party in Panama City spit on wounded warriors and their service dogs and taunted them after a drunken evening, Fox News reported.
On Friday, the University of Florida announced it had suspended the fraternity and Zeta Beta Tau said it had expelled three members involved in the incident.
University of Florida vice president of student affairs, Dave Kratzer an retired Army major general, said he was personally offended by the terrible behavior of the students.
The incident occurred at the Laketown Wharf Resort in Panama City where the nonprofit organization Warrior Beach Retreat was hosting wounded warriors and their spouses for a weekend getaway last weekend. At the same time, Zeta Beta Tau members from the University of Florida and Emory University were staying at the resort for a spring formal.
While the approximately 60 veterans were on the ground floor, the fraternity members were above on balconies “urinating off of balconies, vomiting off of balconies. They could see the men and women below were there with the retreat. They had on hats and shirts with logos,” group founder Linda Cope told Fox News.
The behavior worsened throughout the evening, with drunken members keeping disabled veterans from riding the resort elevators, spitting on them and spitting on their dogs, Cope said. In a letter to the University of Florida, Cope also alleged that the members ripped American flags off cars and urinated on them.
Laurence Bolotin, executive director of Zeta Beta Tau International has seized on the issue and issued two extensive apologies already, with a commitment to investigate the incident fully and “start a dialogue with the Warrior Beach Retreat and to offer whatever assistance we can to rectify this awful situation,” Bolotin said in a statement.
An investigation into the incident is continuing.
