It was exactly one month ago when FAMU President Ammons’ troubles began to unfold with the death of the Marching 100 Band Drum Major Robert Champion. Prior to this date, Ammons had been heralded as the savior of all the past FAMU woes, especially in the area of the University’s persistent financial irregularities. Since the death of one of the members of the Marching 100, the daily news here in Tallahassee has created quite a stir among its citizens, many who are FAMU alumni, especially after Gov. Scott became involved in the controversy.
Today, 21 December 2011, there is absolutely no FAMU news in the Tallahassee Democrat, not even a letter to the editor about FAMU. However, if you are a rapid reader and turn the pages of the news paper quickly you may have stopped at this bi-line, "Rattlers stealing, but not scoring". The FAMU mascot is the rattlesnake and thus are known as the "Rattlers". This article was on the sports page and is about the basketball team and not about more bad news of the university finances.
The death of Robert Champion brought on an avalanche of FAMU’s hazing past history and Ammons firing of the band director, Dr. White. Dr. White accused the President of failing to recognize all Dr. White’s efforts to bring to his attention the existence of hazing within the band and attempts to prevent it. While all the finger pointing over who-knew-what-when, the death of Champion was being investigated by Orange County’s Sheriffs Office (OCSO), Then, the paper reported another serious hazing incident of another band member prior to the death involving broken bones that has resulted in three arrests of FAMU band members. In addition, the initial investigation discovered major financial problems in the band’s finances. Based on all this bad news, The FAMU Board of Trustees (BOG) held an emergency meeting and voted to publicly issue a reprimand to Dr. Ammons for failing to keep the BOG informed. Some BOG members voted to place Ammons on administrative leave until the investigation of Champion’s death was completed. But were over ruled. Dr. White is fighting to get his job back and is being represented by a legal team resulting in reversing the firing to being placed on administrative leave.
Governor Scott got involved and ordered that the blue ribbon panel appointed by Ammons to also investigate hazing be disbanded and that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) be the primary investigation body and that Dr. Ammons be placed on administrative leave so that there would not be any appearance of FAMU leadership influence. This involvement by the Governor brought on an outcry from students, alumni and even political figures who are FAMU grads. That same evening a student march to the Governor’s mansion was quickly organized to demonstrate the support for their President. The Governor defended his position by facing the students with a bull horn to explain that as long as Dr. Ammons remained in a leadership role, his presence could jeopardize a fair and impartial investigation of both the death and the events leading up to 19 November 2011. Again, the BOG met to discuss the Gov’s recommendations and voted to keep Dr. Ammons in place, for now.
Governor Scott made every effort in discussing his recommendations with Dr, Ammons before , and after, he went public in both the appointment of FDLE and a request for Ammons to step back until after the entire investigations was completed. During one of these discussions, the Governor felt that Dr. Ammons was not being kept informed of what was going on within the university and certainly not keeping the BOG informed. The BOG agreed that they initially were flying blind about all the efforts to prevent hazing and reports of hazing within FAMU.
The BOG have put Dr. Ammons on notice that they demand a weekly meeting until the investigation is completed by FDLE. It is now a wait and see situation at FAMU at this time.
The OCSO have received the results of the autopsy and it has reported that Champion died from a severe assault and fatal injuries to his internal organs with a further findings of murder as a result of hazing. The 20 page Orange County Medical Examiner's autopsy report has been released this evening and can be viewed on the WTXL web site:
The following previous articles have also been previsouly published on this subject:
http://www.examiner.com/crime-in-tallahassee/fixing-responsibility-leade...
http://www.examiner.com/crime-in-tallahassee/possible-famu-hazing-death-...
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