Eight Ohio University Welcome Weekend banners were taken down by the Athens Police Department and City Services because none of them had sign permits.
The Twitter account Bobcat Barstool posted a photo of six men in front of a house with a large banner that said, “You taught them to walk we’ll teach them to ride,” with the caption “Save some women for the rest of us.”
The tweet was later quoted by popular Twitter account SheRatesDogs, where it amassed over 100,000 likes and nearly 14,000 retweets in just a few days. The tweet was captioned “....... anyway ladies, tasers are $10 on amazon prime.”
“When those things go up people start to believe that it's okay here,” Athens Mayor Steve Patterson said. “No, it's not okay here.”
In response to the banners from Welcome Weekend, some OU sororities put banners up in support of sexual assault victims, which all had permits, Andy Stone, Athens service safety director, said.
To apply for a sign permit, people have to submit an application that includes the type of sign, the dimensions and a sketch of the sign if it isn’t permanent and elevation.
Stone said everyone complied immediately when a code officer or APD officer asked them to take their banners down.
“It’s somewhat frustrating, and it seems to be like a game,” Stone said. “It’s almost like how quick can you get them to show up?”
Patterson said code enforcement and APD were prepared to have to take down banners during Welcome Weekend.
When Travis Grafton, one of the men pictured in the photo originally posted on Bobcat Barstool, was asked on Twitter if he was pictured, he replied, “Regretfully, yes,” with the crying-laughing emoji.
Grafton tweeted, “Yo we messed up. We saw some banner’s pretty vulgar before we put that up. Looking back on it, it was a bad judgment call on all of us. We just thought it would be funny, but obviously it wasn’t. We’re all sorry.”
Grafton did not respond to a request for comment and has since deleted his Twitter account.
“It’s not funny, APD Chief Tom Pyle said. “Not at all. There is nothing even remotely funny about it.”
Bobcat Barstool tweeted two other photos of banners with similar messages. One read, “Your son might want to come and stay but we’re gonna make him cum and leave.” The other read, “Girls, my mint pod won’t be the only thing in your mouth.”
“I’m surprised more students aren’t angry about the behavior,” Stone said. “I would like to see more of the student body point it out and shame the people.”
Pyle said both men and women are responsible for having these banners up, and that he would guess women are responsible for about half of the banners that pop up during Welcome Weekend.
“The greater problem is the damage done to the city and the university when photos of the banners go beyond Athens and out to the wider public,” Stone said. “People make decisions about whether they are going to send their child to the school based upon what they learn about the school.”
In response, OU tweeted, “If you see any sign or banner around town that seeks to demean any gender, race, sexual orientation, etc. please report it here: http://ohio.edu/pacsm.”
“As in years past, the University will continue to work with our city partners to ensure codes are being enforced,” Carly Leatherwood, a university spokesperson, said in an email.
Editor’s Note: This is an updated version of a previous article.
