Former OU student issues public apology for racist chant

OKLAHOMA CITY -- A former University of Oklahoma student who was caught on a video earlier this month helping to lead a fraternity song that used a racial slur and depicted lynching publicly apologized Wednesday.

"Let me start by saying I'm sorry, deeply sorry," said Levi Pettit, who was a member of the OU Sigma Alpha Epsilon chapter that sang the song. "Although I don't deserve it, I want to ask for your forgiveness."

Pettit,20, told a room of media and community leaders at a Baptist church in Oklahoma City that he was "incredibly ashamed" of himself for his part in the singing of the chant. Pettit's appearance was facilitated by State Sen. Anastasia Pittman and members of the Oklahoma State Legislature's black caucus.

Pittman said Pettit called her personally to apologize after he and another SAE member, Parker Rice, were caught on the video.

She said that she wanted to make Pettit sensitive to the harm that was caused to many by the lyrics sang while on a party bus en route to a fraternity event.

"I wanted him to be educated on some of the struggles they've endured," Pittman told the Associated Press earlier Wednesday. "I think that will enlighten him and give him a new perspective on a culture that he is completely unaware of."

Pettit and Rice were expelled shortly after the controversy exploded. In the fallout from the incident SAE's national organization disbanded the chapter and the university kicked it off campus. Subsequent investigations have taken place on other campuses inquiring into the song's prevalence at other chapters.

Pettit would not speak directly about the incident on the bus, how it started or where he learned the song, nor did he mention the fraternity. But he did acknowledge how what he admits to doing has resonated.

"Meeting with a few people does not change what I did, but it does begin to change me," said Pettit. "I will be the leader I should have been on that bus and stand up against racism in any form."

Pettit's parents apologized on his behalf two weeks ago just after the video's release created the controversy on the university's campus in Norman, Okla.

Rice also issued a statement apologizing for his role in the chant, but has not spoken publicly.

Meanwhile, a lawyer for the disbanded SAE chapter at OU said an agreement has been reached that calls for no further student expulsions.

Stephen Jones confirmed to the AP that the deal had been reached and no additional members of the university's SAE chapter would be expelled.