{"id":12271,"date":"2012-01-12T16:18:31","date_gmt":"2012-01-12T21:18:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=12271"},"modified":"2012-01-12T15:01:03","modified_gmt":"2012-01-12T20:01:03","slug":"famu-drum-major-targeted-because-he-opposed-hazing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=12271","title":{"rendered":"FAMU Drum Major Targeted Because  He Opposed Hazing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>TALLAHASSEE \u2013 The parents of Florida A&amp;M University drum major, <strong>Robert Champion, Jr.<\/strong> who police believe died after a violent hazing, said Tuesday that their son may have been hazed more severely than other students because of his opposition to the practice.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c<strong>Robert Champion, Jr.<\/strong> was the poster child of anti-hazing. He threatened the very institution of hazing in this band,\u201d said <strong>Attorney Christopher Chestnut<\/strong>, a lawyer for <strong>Champion\u2019s<\/strong> family.<\/p>\n<p>During the family\u2019s investigation into what happened to their son they discovered that<strong> Champion<\/strong> was gay, but also concluded that was not a reason for his alleged hazing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is not a hate crime,\u201d <strong>Chestnut<\/strong> said during a news conference Tuesday. \u201cThis is a hazing crime. That is what we are here to say today.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe don\u2019t have all the answers and all the details,\u201d Pam Champion said Tuesday. \u201cMy son, he loved his music. He loved the band. His demeanor was more like following all the rules, doing what you should do as a band member. He was a perfectionist\u2026 He expected everybody to do the same.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Robert Champion, Jr.<\/strong>, 26, was a member of the college\u2019s \u201cMarching 100\u201d band when he collapsed and died Nov. 19, 2011, on a bus parked outside an Orlando, FL, hotel after a football game. Authorities said they believed that hazing was involved.<\/p>\n<p>Sources told ABC News on Tuesday that <strong>Chestnut<\/strong> had been interviewing witnesses for a legal case when he discovered that <strong>Champion<\/strong> way gay. Champion\u2019s parents were vaguely aware of his sexuality, but did not know that there were rumors of a connection to his death.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c<strong>Robert<\/strong> did have an alternative lifestyle,\u201d <strong>Chestnut<\/strong> said Tuesday. He said witnesses said that was not a primary factor in the hazing, however. \u201cIt\u2019s difficult to know the true motives of every person.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The school fired band director, <strong>Julian White<\/strong> and suspended all performance and engagements of any bands and ensembles. <strong>White<\/strong> was later reinstated and put on administrative leave. Four band members also were dismissed from FAMU, but then reinstated.<\/p>\n<p>During the news conference on Tuesday, <strong>Champion\u2019s<\/strong> parents said they planned to sue Fabulous Coach Lines, the company that owns the bus on which the hazing allegedly took place, claiming negligence and wrongful death.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>TALLAHASSEE \u2013 The parents of Florida A&amp;M University drum major, Robert Champion, Jr. who police believe died after a violent hazing, said Tuesday that their son may have been hazed more severely than other students because of his opposition to the practice. \u201cRobert Champion, Jr. was the poster child of anti-hazing. He threatened the very [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":210,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/210"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12271\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}