Simone Biles takes offense at banner with Larry Nassar joke hung during Michigan-Michigan State game

Simone Biles took offense to a banner seen in Ann Arbor during the University of Michigan’s football game with rival Michigan State over the weekend.

“You can’t touch us @LarryNassar,” read the banner, which hung from a window Saturday at the Psi Upsilon fraternity.

It was a reference to the disgraced USA Gymnastics doctor and former Michigan State University assistant professor who is serving a life sentence on child pornography charges and criminal sexual conduct after more than 150 women and girls said he sexually abused them over two decades. Biles herself said that Nassar had abused her at one point.

The gymnast became aware of the sign after seeing people condemn it on Twitter. She tweeted that it was “unbelievable” that someone would hang such a sign.

“This is the type of stuff that makes me sick to my stomach I hope the school is taking the proper measurements in investigating this,” she said.

The sign was later removed, according to a statement from the University of Michigan.

Via their fraternity’s national organization, members of Psi Upsilon at UofM said in a statement Tuesday they “would like to genuinely apologize” for their actions regarding the sign, which was “tasteless and offensive and should not have been allowed.”

“We recognize our fault and it truly was not our intention to diminish the experiences of any survivors of sexual assault,” their statement said. “We want to emphasize that this sign is not indicative of our Chapter’s values and members regret and are ashamed of this incident.”

University of Michigan spokesman Rick Fitzgerald said the fraternity would be “pursuing corrective action with those responsible for hanging the banners and those who failed to intervene.”

Members of the university’s community also submitted complaints against the fraternity to the Greek Activities Review Panel, Fitzgerald said.

The executive director of the national Psi Upsilon fraternity said the banner’s message was “irresponsible, vulgar, and not reflective of the values of Psi Upsilon.”

“There is a larger issue that an environment existed where any member thought this poor attempt at humor was appropriate. Because of that, the entire chapter will take responsibility for the damage done to the community. All social activity has been suspended indefinitely, during this time an educational plan will be developed for the chapter including sensitivity training, bystander behavior guidance and ensure they have a deeper understanding of why this was unacceptable,” said the statement from Thomas Fox.