Protest planned at home of frat member behind racist chant

DALLAS (AP) – A protest is planned Wednesday night outside the Dallas home of a former University of Oklahoma fraternity member who was shown in a video chanting a racial slur.

A Dallas-area advocacy group, the Next Generation Action Network, said a peaceful protest was planned at the family home of Parker Rice. Rice has apologized for participating in the chant, which also referenced lynching and indicated black students would never be admitted to OU’s chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon.

The Rev. Dominique Alexander, who leads the group, said protesters want to send a message: “We’re not going to stand for that.”

Dallas police Maj. Jimmy Vaughan police will monitor the protest and make sure traffic isn’t blocked along the residential street. Officers and media have been at the house, but the family doesn’t appear to be there.

Rice issued an apology Tuesday, saying the incident was “a horrible mistake” and “a devastating lesson” for which he is “seeking guidance on how I can learn from this and make sure it never happens again.”

“I am deeply sorry for what I did Saturday night,” Rice said in the statement emailed to The Associated Press by his father. “It was wrong and reckless.”

Meanwhile, the parents of another student seen in the video, Levi Pettit, released a statement saying, “he made a horrible mistake, and will live with the consequences forever.” Pettit also is from the Dallas area.

The apologies came after OU President David Boren expelled the two students who appeared to be leading the chant. He did not release their names. Boren said others involved would face discipline.

Rice said in his statement that he withdrew from the university Monday. The statement from Pettit’s parents did not address his status with the university.

Rice said threatening calls to his family have prompted them to leave their North Dallas home. He said Saturday’s incident “likely was fueled by alcohol,” but “that’s not an excuse.”

“Yes, the song was taught to us. But that, too, doesn’t work as an explanation. It’s more important to acknowledge what I did and what I didn’t do. I didn’t say ‘no,'” his statement said.

Pettit’s parents, Brody and Susan Pettit, said in a statement posted online that their son “is a good boy, but what we saw in those videos is disgusting.” The Pettits apologized “to the entire African-American community (and) University of Oklahoma student body and administration.”

Beauton Gilbow, the fraternity’s “house mom,” issued a statement Tuesday that addressed a video from 2013 showing her repeating a racial slur as music plays in the background. Gilbow said she was singing along to a song. She said she was “heartbroken” by the portrayal that she was racist but understood how the video must appear in the context of the week’s events.

A “house mom” is a housing director who might oversee staff and finances at a sorority or fraternity house.