FAMU emergency forum on hazing gets heated
By Troy Kinsey, Reporter
Last Updated: Tuesday, December 06, 2011 5:06 AM
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| Robert Champion |
TALLAHASSEE -- It's been two weeks since a drum major in the Florida A&M University marching band collapsed and died after a halftime performance.
Investigators say hazing may be to blame.
Monday, FAMU students were summoned to a mandatory forum to talk about what some say is a campus-wide epidemic.
Students signed a pledge there that they won't engage in hazing and, if they witness it, they'll report it.
But many continue to have big questions about how FAMU’s gotten here and what might lie ahead.
FAMU president James Ammons called what's happening here a difficult, but big step toward rooting out what many call a pervasive and violent culture.
“One of the problems that goes along with hazing is this veil of secrecy, this conspiracy of silence, but I think now we have broken through,” said Ammons.
I don't see anything at that link explaining why this young man's death may be linked to hazing. But I wonder whether his band director had pushed him to disregard warning signs of poor health in favor of being there for the band.
ReplyDeleteMarching band (in my region) is a culture as competitive and grueling as team sports can be. As a band mom I saw a high school drummer die of a heart attack on the field. And one year a major competition wasn't called off despite a combination of heat and falling ash from a regional wildfire. The field was lined with ambulances tending to the many musicians and drill team members who had asthma attacks while performing. During the August band camp, two successive band directors withheld water breaks as punishment when the kids didn't get the steps right. Yet the kids wouldn't rebel because they'd do anything for these teachers' approval.
I hope that FAMU student's family pushes to find out whether the admin is using hazing as a scapegoat to protect an entrenched competitive band culture.
Here's a link to Frank Deford's piece from NPR's Morning Edition this morning, which gets at the heart of your question, Eskarina: http://www.npr.org/2011/12/07/143211079/for-some-marching-bands-hazing-means-brutality
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