Indiana Frat Suspended After Video Shows Alleged Rape Of Pledge

A fraternity at Indiana University was suspended late Wednesday night, pending investigations around an alleged hazing incident. A video, reportedly of pledges from the Alpha Tau Omega frat, shows a sex act that to many looks like rape. A short video made the rounds on Twitter yesterday, showing a young man wearing only boxers, performing oral sex on a naked woman on a mattress. The two are surrounded by about a dozen shirtless young men, who are cheering and chanting "Scotty!" At several points in the 30-second clip, the young man appears to try to get up but is pushed back down by the woman's legs. Nothing in the video links the pledges to Alpha Tau Omega, but it was posted by a Twitter account called ATO Video — and is widely assumed to be the reason for the frat's suspension. R29 will not post the video for obvious reasons, but it was still live on ATO Video's page and elsewhere by Thursday morning.

It's not clear that either party is consenting — to the sex act or to being filmed — but comments online run the gamut from calling it rape to a "boys will be boys" shoulder shrug. In response to the university's tweet announcing the suspension, posters joked that the incident "looked like fun" and called the suspension an "overreaction."

The CEO of the national fraternity responded on Thursday with a statement: "The video is highly offensive and is antithetical to the values of Alpha Tau Omega," wrote Wynn Smiley. "The men who were a part of such a vulgar incident do not represent the fraternity and damage the fraternity’s name for thousands of ATO undergraduates and alumni across the country.”