FAMU Hazing: Four More Band Members Charged

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Pledges of a Florida A&M marching band club known as the Clones were punched or paddled while they played music during a hazing initiation, according to police records released Friday. Four band members were arrested in the beatings and charged with hazing.

It's the latest fallout from a scandal that has rocked the university and its famed Marching 100 band. FAMU's band director had told university police about hazing among the Clones, a group within the band's clarinet section, a police report said.

The hazing took place in "three or four initiation meetings" that began around Sept. 1 in a house about a mile from campus. Five pledges were lined up in order of their height and "forced to exercise, play music, and were either punched, prepped (slapped with both hands on back) and/or paddled," police said.

One of the pledges took photos of her bruises and quit after the first meeting. The police report doesn't say whether she reported the alleged hazing to FAMU officials.

During the initiations, pledges were forced to give money and were pressured to keep exercising "even after exhaustion."

The four students arrested were: Denise Bailey, 22; Brandon Benson, 23; Hakeem Birch, 21 and Anthony Mingo, 22.

They were booked on a misdemeanor hazing charge and released on bail earlier this week. All denied that hazing occurred or said they didn't know about it, according to the police report. None had attorneys as of Friday afternoon.

In November, FAMU drum major Robert Champion died hours after the Florida Classic football game in Orlando in what authorities said was a hazing ritual. His death has been ruled a homicide, but no charges have been brought.

The 26-year-old drum major suffered blunt trauma blows to his body while he was aboard a bus and died from shock caused by severe bleeding.

FAMU president James Ammons originally fired band director Julian White after Ammons said he failed to report hazing he knew about. White, who is now on administrative leave, denies that he didn't do enough.

White previously provided copies of letters to The Associated Press that he sent to Birch and Mingo in November, saying he was suspending them until a hazing investigation by university police was finished.

Three people were charged after alleged hazing ceremonies Oct. 31 and Nov. 1, when Bria Shante Hunter's legs were beaten with fists and a metal ruler to initiate her into the "Red Dawg Order," a band clique for students who hail from Georgia.

The Board of Governors – which oversees the state's 11 public universities – launched its own investigation in November into whether FAMU officials had ignored past warnings about hazing. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement also is investigating the Marching 100's finances.

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Follow James L. Rosica on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/jlrosica

Comments

[Fallconcrest]

09:58 PM on 01/23/2012

Hazing happens in colleges all over America. What I find most disturbing at FAMU is that one student died, another was beaten so badly she couldn't walk, yet the hazing continues. Just this weekend, there were additional arrests for a new incident at this college. I don't know how beating the hell out of me is going to make me loyal to you or your organization.

Hazing is not limited to Black Colleges, beating someone until they die, making someone drink and die of alcohol poisoning occurs. In one particular college in the northeast, students were forced to walk ten miles in 10 degree frigid weather in their underwear, the students became ill and almost died. The list is quite long dating back into the history of schools where these incidents have occurred.

You would think that FAMU students would have stopped this nonesense since one student dies as a direct result of hazing. Yet they continued until two more students are arrested for the same type of behavior.

These riturals have to stop, and those in authority who can't get the messages across to all students that hazing is prohibited should be terminated and hire someone who can be more effective.

[surfandshop]

04:54 PM on 01/23/2012

Hazing and branding have long been a tradition in black college societies. It's not ok to do this to another person, re slavery?

[JackVandusen]

08:09 PM on 01/23/2012

Whites haze too. I'd like your comment better if the word "black" were erased.
To me that would make it more accurate.

[maliksmama]

09:55 AM on 01/22/2012

I'm still trying to process the fact that a 26 year old, grown a$$ MAN, was hazed to death. As one of the elder members of the band, wouldn't he have been LEADING instead of FOLLOWING the younger members of the band?

[Ian Gord]

04:20 PM on 01/21/2012

Yet when the governor of Florida tries to get to the bottom of things, he's a racist.

[heboprotagonist]

06:01 PM on 01/21/2012

He is a racist. It has nothing to do with his lack of investigative skills. He's just a racist.

[Klous]

11:30 AM on 01/22/2012

Any special reason he is a racist or does it roll off the tongue easily?

[GraphicMatt]

11:54 AM on 01/23/2012

His being racist had nothing to do with getting to the bottom of things. The racism charges came from the condescending manner in which he claimed to be just like the students at FAMU, having come from "humble beginings" as if every student at FAMU came from being poor. Try being honest Ian.

[Eric Daniels]

12:56 PM on 01/21/2012

If this was harassment of the young man who because he was gay then the school should disband the marching 100 until the issue is resolved. I know that it would anger the Alumni but the violetn hazing must cease especially when people seriously hurt or killed. And if Champion was killed because of his sexual preference and the did that also that should be a hate crime for those students involved. It's hard enough being African- American without and to live an honest gay life without the hazing and sexual harassment that goes on in modern Black Youth Culture.

[GraphicMatt]

11:50 AM on 01/23/2012

This was a completely different case.......did you not read the article?

[VA Jill]

11:34 AM on 01/21/2012

FAMU needs to show some class and disband the band until all current members have either graduated or left school. Also, all current members need to be investigated until the truth is known about the extent of the hazing. There is no place for this kind of behavior in a music program or anywhere else.

[darleneslee]

09:40 AM on 01/21/2012

How do you beat someone to death and its a misdemeanor ? How are they out on bond ? Only in the /black community when its black on black. This is a travesty and where is the up-roar ? The administration, police and parents have all let this victim fall to the wayside.

[Tblack]

05:54 PM on 01/21/2012

This is separate incident. Read the story again...carefully.

[GraphicMatt]

11:51 AM on 01/23/2012

You are correct, ignorance is not bliss. This was a completely different case, which if you had read the article you might know.

[CDL1]

11:20 PM on 01/20/2012

This one time at band camp.....

[dwill123]

07:05 PM on 01/20/2012

The Marching "100" is down to 96.

[ForVivi]

05:22 PM on 01/20/2012

The hazing has got to stop, or at least make it more innocuous. Have the initiation include things like only eating with a spoon, standing every time a member walks into the cafeteria, wearing a silly hat, etc. Things like that would be quite enough.

[Joseph Schmoe]

08:28 PM on 01/21/2012

No, that would be too much.
Bonds of brotherhood and sisterhood are not strengthened through shame, ridicule and violence upon each other. Where did you ever get such an idiotic idea?

[ForVivi]

08:32 PM on 01/21/2012

I went through it and found it stupid then too.