linkyQuote:
A Louisiana State University fraternity which posted an offensive sign before last weekend's LSU football game vs. Kent State has replaced it with another apologizing for anyone offended.
WVLA TV in Baton Rouge reported that it was the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity that posted the sign that said, "Getting massacred is nothing new to Kent St." Pictures of the sign were distributed around the Internet on Sunday, drawing negative feedback.
By Sunday night, the station had pictures of the fraternity displaying a new sign saying, "We would like to apologize."
via @WALBNews10
The original sign referenced the May 4, 1970, incident on Kent State's campus when Ohio National Guardsmen fired on anti-war protesters, killing four students and injuring nine.
Kent State released a statement on Sunday through university spokesman Eric Mansfield which read: "May 4, 1970, was a watershed moment for the country and especially the Kent State family. We lost four students that day while nine others were wounded and countless others were changed forever.
"We take offense to the actions of a few people last night who created an inappropriate sign and distracted from the athletic contest on the field.
"Our new May 4 Visitor Center, which opened less than a year ago, is another way in which Kent State is inviting the country to gain perspective on what happened 43 years ago and apply its meaning to the future.
"We would invite those who created the sign to visit our campus and learn more about the event which forever changed Kent State and America."
WVLA reported Sunday that an LSU official told the station that fraternity members had removed the sign after being asked to do so by LSU police officers. The station also reported that in 2012 a sign over the door of the same fraternity read, “Like the Batman movie premier, we’re starting off this season with a bang.”
The sign was a reference to the July 20, 2012, mass shooting inside an Aurora, Colo., movie theater during a midnight screening of the Batman film The Dark Knight Rises during which 12 people were killed and dozens were injured.
Considering it was 43 years ago, I'm shocked that college jocks even knew what The Kent State Massacre was. It probably was in poor taste, but I think people need to grow some skin too. It's a college Fraternity, talking trash about sports, being crass is what they are expected to do. I mean we used to have posters that would say "Neuter the bulldogs" that doesn't mean we really wished castration on the other teams rivals.