The University of Central Florida Chapter of Sigma Pi has been placed on interim suspension after a “LeBron James task” prank heads south.
On February 28, two pledges rushing the Sigma Pi fraternity entered Business Administration Building one, room 107, before the class had begun. One of the pledges was wearing a Miami Heat LeBron James jersey, according to UCF.
As the regularly scheduled class proceeded, the pledge wearing the Heat jersey eventually stood up and announced that he would be, “taking his talents to South Beach.”
After making the announcement, the pledge then proceeded to throw a white powder into the air the same way James does before a basketball game. The powder, which was later identified as baby powder, landed on several students who were seat near the Sigma Pi pledge. During this time, the other pledge recorded the entire spectacle, according to UCF.
After the task was complete, police say the two pledges fled the scene and hid in Sumter Hall on campus, and made no attempt to contact law enforcement to inform them that they were the perpetrators. During that same time, the College of Business Administration was evacuated and multiple law enforcement resources were committed to this incident, according to reports.
Once law enforcement contacted the two pledges, they immediately confessed to being “influenced” by Sigma Pi brothers to perform this task. The pledges also notified authorities that Sigma Pi leadership had coached them on how to deceive the police, according to the report.
The pledges also informed police that the “LeBron James task” is a Sigma Pi tradition.
According to UCF, Sigma Pi has been placed on interim suspension because the fraternity allegedly knew about this prank for weeks, helped the pledges select a highly-populated classroom to perform the prank in, and even encouraged the pledges to take part in the fraternity tradition.
The report goes on to say once UCF contacted Sigma Pi leadership, the men began to give false and misleading statements in an effort to lessen any punishment that the school or police may place on the organization.
According to the report, UCF believes that both pledges violated Florida State Statutes and that the pledges and the Sigma Pi fraternity violated the UCF Golden Rule.
This is not the first-time Knight News has covered questionable behavior by brothers of the Sigma Pi fraternity.
Croatti never replied to Knight News for comment, but did rate this publication 1 out of 5 stars on Facebook the day after he received our request for comment.
After Knight News’ report on Croatti, Sigma Pi appeared to systematically retaliate against the report with negative Facebook reviews. These reviews called Knight News worse than CNN and claimed the report on Croatti was “fake news,” even though there was a video of him unexpectedly knocking out another individual
Sigma Pi’s Treasurer, Chad Boole, included a comment with his review stating that Knight News only covered the Croatti video because Knight News “hates fun.”
UCF Student conduct confirmed to Knight News it was looking into the Croatti incident but it is unclear if anything came of UCF’s investigation.
Meanwhile,another fraternity, Beta Theta Pi, was placed on interim suspension for several months after the mother of a dismissed pledge reported that brothers of the organization made her son drink a “huge” bottle of Smirnoff Ice.
Knight News reached out to Sigma Pi President Jacob Cogger who did not immediately respond.
Sigma Pi will be having a student conduct hearing on Thursday March 15 at 4 pm. Knight News will be reporting live from outside the hearing.
