Nov. 23--FAMU has fired longtime band director Julian White, four days after the death of a drum major in which police say hazing was involved.
"Dr. White has been terminated from employment at the university," said FAMU President James Ammons, citing White's "inability to stop hazing in the department of music and in the band."
"We are serious: This has to stop," Ammons said in an interview with the Sentinel. "The highest priority we have as a university is protecting the health, safety and well-being of our students."
The news comes a day after Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings announced that hazing is being investigated in the death of Robert Champion, who collapsed aboard a parked charter bus in front of the Rosen Plaza hotel Saturday night after the Florida Classic football game. The FAMU band performed during halftime.
He was pronounced dead a short time later at Dr. P. Phillips Hospital. The 26-year-old was a first-year drum major poised to become the top student in the band next year.
Gov. Rick Scott on Wednesday sent a letter requesting that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement assist in the investigation "to assure that the circumstances ... become fully known."
Parents of several members of the FAMU "Marching 100" band told the Sentinel on Tuesday that they have implored university officials for months to end verbal and physical abuse in the band.
And, apparently just days before Champion's death, a band faculty member also sent an email to university leaders expressing concerns about hazing within the band, which prompted administrators to meet last week with student leaders, Ammons said.
Administrators stressed to students "the illegal nature of hazing and the consequences," Ammons said, and the university's police chief attended their practice before the Florida Classic.
Ammons said he had hoped students would heed the stern warning. Now he hopes they'll take the tragedy of Champion's death to heart.
"If this doesn't change behavior, I don't know what will," he said.
Hazing crisis?
Dr. Walter Kimbrough, an expert on hazing, said that, with Champion's death, the culture of violence within the "Marching 100" has reached crisis levels.
Kimbrough was an expert witness in the 1998 hazing case of FAMU clarinet player Ivery Luckey, hospitalized for 11 days with kidney failure after he was paddled during a initiation ritual.
"There is a major hazing-culture problem on this campus," Kimbrough said. "This has to be a wake-up call."
Luckey later sued the school and settled for $50,000. Another former band member, Marcus Parker, won a $1.8 million verdict against members of the band in 2004.
According to the Florida Times-Union newspaper in Jacksonville, that suit stemmed from a 2001 paddle beating during a Marching 100 initiation that caused one of Parker's kidneys to shut down temporarily.
University spokeswoman Sharon Saunders said there are three active hazing investigations at FAMU, and 30 members of the band's trombone section were recently suspended for hazing.
Luckey says the band is mostly managed by section leaders, upperclassmen who control the fates of newer members. Not everyone in the band is chosen to perform on the field.
He said band members submit to the abuse because they want to succeed.
"It's pressure -- no one wants to be beat up for no reason," Luckey said. "But there is a legacy; there are students in high school who can't wait for their chance to participate in the hazing."
Luckey said he still loves the band. He says it's "rotten apples in the band that are the problem. The administration needs to get involved and take a stern approach to eradicate this behavior."
White, the fired director, joined the university faculty in 1972, according to FAMU's website. He has received numerous awards and commendations as a band director and an educator. White could not be reached for comment.
Ammons said the Tallahassee university's campus community has been rocked by the death. He said a newly formed task force will work to assess the extent and nature of the hazing problem.
"There is a dark cloud over this campus, and the students, the faculty, the administration are all just heartbroken that we have lost someone like Robert Champion in his prime," he said.
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Copyright 2011 - The Orlando Sentinel, Fla.
