TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The father of a freshman in Florida A&M University’s famed marching band e-mailed the school’s president in 2007 after getting a series of panic-stricken phone calls. The son never described exactly what was happening, but he made it clear he feared getting beaten.
“I feel that my son’s future could be in jeopardy,” Donovan Crosby wrote to James Ammons in the e-mail, which is part of public records obtained jointly by The Associated Press and the Tallahassee Democrat.
Hundreds of pages of records show years of repeated warnings about brutal hazing passed without any serious response from the school’s leadership until last November’s beating death of drum major Robert Champion.
A staff member replied to the e-mail, so Crosby called the next day to talk to Ammons directly. Crosby said at first the president reassured him, then repeated the standard line that the school doesn’t condone hazing.
Crosby said his son left FAMU after two years and has since struggled with personal problems. He only recently re-enrolled at another college in Florida.
“It was the worst decision in his life to go to FAMU,” Crosby said.
Police files show that since 2007 nearly two dozen incidents involving the band, fraternities and other student groups have been investigated. But it wasn’t until Champion’s death that the band director was initially fired, the band was suspended, student clubs were halted from recruiting new members and an anti-hazing task force was assembled.
