University of Mississippi officials
Thursday condemned “borderline hate speech” used by a group of
freshman athletes during a production of The Laramie Project.
The
Daily Mississippian, an Ole Miss student paper, first
reported that derogatory slurs were shouted at cast members during
Tuesday night's production of the play.
The Laramie Project is based on
the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard, a student at the University of
Wyoming. Shepard was beaten, shackled to a post and left to die in a
field by two men he had met in a gay bar. He was found comatose, but
died five days later on October 12th.
Michael Barnett, assistant chair of
theater arts at the school, told USA
Today that while the athletes were not the only audience
members heckling the cast, they appeared to have incited the
incident.
“We don't always have the best
audiences, but this was taking it to a new level to be sure,”
Barnett said. “There were a lot of athletes there that night, so
we're trying to identify who specifically was using hate speech.”
“From what I understand there were
others who followed suit, who followed the lead of the students who
were heckling some of our female cast members based on their body
size. And then there were several incidents from what I understand
of using the term 'fag' or 'faggot.' That's when our house manager
went to contact athletics.”
A joint statement by the university's
chancellor, Dan Jones, and Athletics Director Ross Bjork was issued
on Thursday.
“While we work to determine with
certainty who disrupted The Laramie Project play, we want
everyone within our university community and beyond to know that we
strongly condemn the behavior exhibited Tuesday night. As a member
of the Ole Miss family, each of us has a responsibility to be
accountable for our actions, and these individuals will be held
accountable. Our investigation will determine the degree to which
any and all students were involved,” the statement reads in part.
Ole Miss football coach Hugh Freeze
added in a tweet: “We certainly do not condone any actions that
offend or hurt people in any way. We are working with all
departments involved to find the facts.”