Ex-director says it's too soon to reinstate FAMU band

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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Julian White, who retired this week as director of Florida A&M University's marching band, says that now is not the time to reinstate the band, which has been on suspension since drum major Robert Champion's hazing death in November.

By Joseph Brown III, AP

Julian White conducts the marching band during the Florida Classic at the Citrus Bowl in Orlando.

By Joseph Brown III, AP

Julian White conducts the marching band during the Florida Classic at the Citrus Bowl in Orlando.

"In all honesty, this fall may be too soon," White said in an interview Friday with the Tallahassee Democrat. "Even though it was not the majority of the band members involved, the lesson needs to be really implemented and stressed that conduct is more important than the product of marching and entertaining."

FAMU's board of trustees will meet Monday to hear a report from President James H. Ammons on the future of the band. State University System Chancellor Frank Brogan weighed in on the issues this week, recommending the band remain suspended because of ongoing investigations into the university's finances and institutional controls, revelations of enrollment problems and the prosecution of the Champion case.

Eleven band members were charged last week with felony hazing in connection with Champion's beating death on a band bus Nov. 19 in Orlando after the Florida Classic football game.

White, 71, who first was fired by Ammons, then placed on administrative leave at the request of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement until investigations were complete, announced Thursday his retirement from the university and the band program he helped lead for nearly 50 years.

He said Friday he was "completely shocked" by what happened to Champion because he had just suspended 26 students for suspected hazing activities and refused to let them participate in the Classic. He was particularly distressed that fellow drum majors were involved. Three of them, Jonathan Boyce, Shawn Turner and Rikki Wills were among those charged with felony hazing.

"They are my leaders," White said. "I would have trusted them with my life beforehand."

That night, the bus company provided White a complimentary limousine in which he allowed the drum majors to ride to and from the stadium.

"To discover that allegedly they were planning this process while in my presence and enjoying the luxury of the limousine was disappointing to me," he said.

Hours after Champion's death, most of his fellow drum majors denied to White and band staff members that hazing occurred on the bus.

"One drum major did tell me everything that happened," White said.

Drum major Keon Hollis was not charged in connection with Champion's death. He told ESPN that the two went through the hazing ritual together. Two band members charged in Champion's death also are facing misdemeanor hazing charges in connection with Hollis' beating on the bus.

White said that when he heard what happened later that night, he called the Orange County Sheriff's Office and told them investigators needed to come back because foul play was suspected. The sheriff's office did not return call asking to verify White's call.

When he was head FAMU drum major in the early 1960s White said there was no form of hazing among his fellow band leaders. As band director, he said he had "no knowledge of a 'Bus C' ritual" such as the one Champion went through. Champion was pummeled so hard, the medical examiner found, he bled out into his soft tissue.

To this day, he said he regrets not hearing from anyone — parents, students or others — about the "Bus C" practice that reportedly involved beating band members as they attempted to go from the front of the bus to the back.

"If they had told me I would have gone an extra step to make sure that incident never happened," he said.

White reiterated he took necessary steps to address and report hazing to officials all the way up to Ammons, but the administration didn't take proper actions. For example, he said the 26 band members he suspended prior to the Classic were cleared to play by university's discipline committee. He still refused to let them march.

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