3 Ole Miss Students Posed With Guns At An Emmett Till Memorial Sign

Source: Chicago Tribune / Getty

Students Get Suspended From Frat For Posing With Emmett Till Memorial

Three (white, obviously) college students were suspended from their fraternity after posing with guns in front of a memorial for Emmett Till.

You read that right: suspended from their fraternity, not their school. The students still haven’t been suspended from their school, because Ole Miss determined that it wasn’t a violation of their policy, according to reports from ABC News.

“While the image is offensive, it did not present a violation of university code of conduct. It occurred off campus and was not part of a university-affiliated event,” University of Mississippi spokesperson Rod Guajardo said in a statement.

The three students are pictured posing with guns at a sign dedicated to Till, a 14-year-old African American child who was kidnapped, beaten, tortured, and shot in 1955 following an alleged encounter with a white woman.

One of the three students seen in the photo allegedly posted it to his Instagram account in back in March. The school was notified through their Bias Incident Response Team, which then referred it to the University Police Department, who ultimately reported the photo to the FBI. Guajardo said in the statement that the FBI “reported back to UPD that it declined to investigate further because the photo did not pose a specific threat.”

These students are members of the Kappa Alpha Order fraternity, and the group’s spokesperson Jesse Lyons confirmed to ABC News that they were indeed were suspended.

“The making of the photo was unrelated to any event or activity of our chapter,” Lyons said in a statement provided to the publication. “The photo is inappropriate, insensitive, and unacceptable. It does not represent our chapter. We have and will continue to be in communication with our national organization and the University.”

Unfortunately, this same sign dedicated to Emmett Till has been vandalized before. The Associated Press reports that the sign–which marks where Till’s body was found–is the third iteration in that location after the first two were destroyed in earlier vandalism incidents.

This latest iteration of the sign was removed last week before news of the picture broke.