TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida A&M band member Bria Shante Hunter had tried to get out of going to a meeting. For that, authorities say, fellow band members subjected her to hazing rituals so severe she was left with a broken thigh.
Tallahassee police said that on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1, Hunter was beaten with fists and a metal ruler to initiate her into the “Red Dawg Order” — a band clique for students from Georgia.
Three Florida A&M band members were charged Monday in the beatings, which came about three weeks before drum major Robert Champion died during a band trip to Orlando, police said. Police say hazing also was involved in that death.
Champion’s death and now the arrests have exposed a hazing tradition that has long haunted the university. Former clarinet player Ivery Luckey was hospitalized after he said he was paddled around 300 times in 1998. Three years later, band member Marcus Parker suffered kidney damage because of a beating with a paddle.
After Champion died, the university indefinitely suspended performances by the famed Marching 100 and school President James Ammons has vowed to break what he calls a “code of silence” on the hazing rituals.
In the incidents that happened in October and November, Hunter told police that days later the pain became so unbearable she went to the hospital. Besides her broken thigh bone, she had had blood clots in her legs.
WATCH BRIA SHANTE HUNTER’S STORY HERE
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Sean Hobson, 23, and Aaron Golson, 19, were charged Monday with hazing and battery, and James Harris, 22, was charged with hazing. All three remained jailed early Tuesday. A university spokeswoman confirmed they were students. Attempts to reach listed numbers for them were unsuccessful.
Police say the hazing happened at Harris’ off-campus apartment in Tallahassee and that at one point he stopped Golson and Hobson from hitting Hunter further.
Hunter did not immediately return a call to her cell phone. But in an interview with Orlando station WFTV-TV, she was asked why band members take part in hazing.
“So we can be accepted,” she told the station. “If you don’t do anything, then, it’s like you’re lame.”
Officers said in the arresting documents that Hunter was targeted by the other members of the “Red Dawg Order” because she tried to get out of going to a group meeting. She was repeatedly punched on the tops of her thighs by Golson and Hobson, according to information the police got from others who witnessed the incident.
The second beating came when Hunter and other pledges could not recite information about the “Red Dawg Order” properly. It was during that one that a metal ruler was used on her legs.
Police say Hobson sent Hunter a text message on Nov. 5 that stated “I apologize for the hurt I put you through. I apologize for the mental and physical strain you have endured.” When interviewed later by police, Hobson acknowledged he was a member of the “Red Dawg Order” but denied harming Hunter or sending her a text message.
Harris also denied to police that he allowed his apartment to be used to hold the meetings and he denied seeing Hunter getting hit.
After Champion’s death, the school fired band director Julian White, who contends he tried to report problems with hazing to his superiors. He has since been reinstated and placed on administrative leave at the request of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement which asked the university to halt all disciplinary actions until the criminal investigation is finished. Four students connected to Champion’s death were expelled, but then reinstated at the request of the law-enforcement agency.
Last week the Board of Trustees reprimanded Ammons over his job performance, including how the university has dealt with hazing. The panel that oversees the state university system has also called for a probe into whether school officials ignored past warnings about hazing.
“The Board of Trustees and President Ammons hope that through these arrests all involved in perpetuating this culture will really begin to view hazing as a serious matter,” said university spokeswoman Sharon Saunders.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.