‘Frat Lives Matter’ written on spirit rock after Kappa Sig brothers arrested in connection to death of UConn student
Six students were arrested for distributing alcohol to 19-year-old Jeffny Pally on the night she died
The spirit rock at the intersection of Alumni and Hilltop was emblazoned with the phrase “Frat Lives Matter” in acknowledgement of the six Kappa Sigma members arrested for distributing alcohol to minors in connection to the death of Jeffny Pally, who was struck by a fire department vehicle in October 2016.
“Frat Lives Matter” is an apparent crass parody of “Black Lives Matter,” a phrase associated with the social justice movement of the same name.
A photo of the rock was tweeted by Eeman Abbasi, a UConn student and human rights advocate who tweeted a picture and captioned it “Fck this BS.”
Eeman told The Tab UConn “The fact that a group of men co-opted the language of Black Lives Matter on the five year anniversary of Trayvon Martin’s death indicates how little progress has been made across America.”
“Their words also minimized the gravity of the death of an individual, by identifying themselves as victims. Greek life at UConn must take direct action in confronting their long history of exclusion, intimidation, and racism,” she said.
The UConn Interfraternity Council painted over the rock and posted a Facebook status which read:
“The wildly inappropriate and insensitive messages of ‘Frat Lives Matter’ painted on rocks throughout our campus this morning do not in any way reflect the values or beliefs of the UConn Interfraternity Council or any of our 12 recognized member fraternities. UConn fraternity men have always, and will always, continue to hold themselves to highest moral standards and strive to be leaders and role models within the community.”
The Tab UConn has reached out to members of Kappa Sig for a comment.