Champion Investigation Reveals FAMU Knew of Prior Hazing Activities

Robert Champion was a 26-year-old student at Florida A&M University (FAMU) and aspiring musician with dreams of obtaining the position of lead drum major within the famed FAMU marching band. For Champion, this honor was of the highest priority, and he seemed to be driven to attain it however he could. Tragically, the initiation process associated with this position carried a history of extreme hazing.

The initiation ritual, known as “crossing bus C,” was a hazing procedure that was viewed as an honor by other band members and had been performed by dozens before Champion. For Robert Champion, who was opposed to hazing according to several band members, this was a necessary trial he had to endure in order to be accepted by his peers. While he knew the initiation would be painful, Champion did not expect to pay the ultimate price: his life. Tragically, the sheer brutality of the ritual and its horrific outcome would leave the community in shock and lead to a full-fledged federal investigation.

Following a football game in Orlando, Florida in November 2011, Champion made his way across an empty hotel parking lot late at night, where he stopped at his destination: Bus C. Upon entering the bus, Champion faced an aisle filled with approximately fifteen band members, all waiting to dole out the punishment that came with the hazing ritual known as “crossing Bus C.” Champion then had to force his way past these individuals while they beat him with drum mallets and their own fists until he reached the back of the bus, which was called “the hot seat.” There, he was enveloped in blankets then continuously kicked and punched to such a degree that he began to lose consciousness. Jonathon Boyce, a fellow drum major now charged with felony hazing, claimed in his deposition that he tried to protect Champion during the assault. Boyce stated that he climbed to the area where Champion was being pummeled and tried to cover his body from the blows. That was when he noticed that Champion was having trouble breathing and that he “couldn’t see but his eyes were wide open.” Robert Champion was soon brought to the front of the bus, and after a call to emergency services, he was rushed to a local hospital. Champion died at the hospital due to internal bleeding caused by shock and massive blunt force trauma of the hazing practice.

The death of a talented young man is terrible enough, yet the notion that he was killed due to repeated and intentional beatings from his band peers and friends is unthinkable. If this tradition was so widely known among student members of the band called the Marching 100, how could no one have stopped this or reduced its violent nature by some degree? The band leaders from FAMU must have questioned where fifteen or more band members had slipped away to in the middle of the night, unless they were so negligent in their supervision of the students that they failed to notice their absence.

Additionally, as reported by the Associated Press, hazing reports surfaced several years ago involving FAMU band members who sustained severe kidney and thighbone injuries caused by heavy blows. Thus, it must be difficult for the Champion family to believe that no authority figures within the band program ever knew of this ritual, when it had been performed over many years on numerous aspiring drum majors.

It is equally difficult to accept that the bus company had no fault in this case. The bus driver should have had full control of his bus, even when not in use. Bus C should never have been open that night for this activity to occur, much less the several other nights during which this same hazing ritual had occurred. Why wasn’t the bus locked in the middle of the night, and if it was, how did members of the band gain entry? The bus company in question has the legal duty to monitor its equipment and should be responsible for allowing these hazing events that led to the death of Robert Champion to occur so many times on their bus.

After this story broke, the entire FAMU band program was suspended for one academic year, and the director of the band resigned along with thirteen defendants being charged with third degree hazing felonies and misdemeanors. The notion that those involved were not charged with at least manslaughter has baffled legal scholars. It has also deeply troubled the Champion family, which maintains that there was a widespread, systematic cover up by the FAMU band program. In the words of Robert’s mother, Pam Champion, “He was murdered on that bus, and no one signs up for that.”

The lure of a much desired goal can lead many college students to succumb to the pressure of violent hazing in a desperate effort to be accepted by their peers. In the case of Robert Champion, FAMU owed a legal duty to its student body to monitor illegal and life-threatening activities on and off campus during school-sponsored events; the school may therefore be liable for the wrongful death of its student. It is tragic that the leaders of FAMU apparently ignored such dangerous hazing incidents and tacitly permitted such behavior among their students.