Earlier this week, we told you about the Zeta Tau Alpha sorority that was disciplined by Miami University for alleged drunken assaults on a limousine driver. Well, a friend of the Zetas have stepped up to defend their honor.
We received an email from someone claiming to be a boyfriend of one of the Zeta girls and an attendee of the saucy formal in question. You can read the whole thing below, but the short version is that it includes the not-so-subtle implication that the driver was the out-of-control drunk who possibly stole alcohol from the girls. He also claims there was no puking on the bus and the driver tried to abandon them in a bad part of town, despite the boys and girls having been the wronged parties.
Keep in mind: This account is completely unverified and apparently does not jibe with the official report of the incident, since the sorority was still banned from holding any alcohol-fueled events for one year. But here is another [sic'd] explanation anyway, because ... hey, Saturday. Enjoy.
I was at this particular Miami formal incident. I graduated from Miami last year and my girlfriend was a senior Zeta this year.
The whole night started out fine. The bus driver in question was quite cordial and signed off on students having alcohol on the bus. We arrived at the Cincinnati Zoo and people drank and carried on without much incident. When we returned to the bus, much of the alcohol that had been brought at the beginning of the night but had not been consumed had gone missing, some of which had been stored in girl's bag and backpacks that had been closed and were now open (and possibly consumed by the driver himself). In addition, the bus driver had become quite irrate and claimed that someone had vomited on the bus. This being a party bus, there was no way that someone puked anywhere, as someone would have seen it on the ride down and said something, there was no smell what so ever (unless this driver took his bus to get detailed at 10 pm on a Friday), and when we looked at the spot where he claimed that someone had puked and there was no stain. This is when people became upset with the driver. Drunken frat boys being drunken frat boys, people were pissed their booze was gone.
At this point, the sorority member in charge of the bus walked to the forward part of the bus and started having a calm conversation with the driver. The driver was having none of it and was declining to explain himself. During the drive, two male attendees were messing with each other, and one of them called the other a homosexual slur. At this time, the driver, who was driving at 50-60 mph SLAMMED on the brakes, causing all the riders on the bus to be flung forward. One girl recieved a nice gash on her arm, another slammed her head into a wall, and a male rider received a broken nose. At this point, he tried to get the bus to unload in the middle of Vine St. He then pulled to the gas station, which was not in the best neighborhood to drop a bunch of college kids off in. The owner then rolls up and tells everyone to get off the fucking bus. The police came and the situation was defused when another bus came and picked up most of the riders.
It was a pretty bullshit situation, as the students did nothing to the driver prior to the sudden stop. I can't say that the actions of the students were perfect, but the driver definitely overreacted and possibly could have been drinking himself, but this is speculation.