{"id":3419,"date":"2011-12-05T16:23:12","date_gmt":"2011-12-05T21:23:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/?p=3419"},"modified":"2011-12-05T16:23:12","modified_gmt":"2011-12-05T21:23:12","slug":"florida-hazing-death-under-fdle-investigation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2011\/12\/05\/florida-hazing-death-under-fdle-investigation\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Hazing Death Under FDLE Investigation"},"content":{"rendered":"
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tampabay.com<\/p>

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The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is now investigating the death of a Florida A&M University (FAMU) student who had reportedly been hazed by his fellow band mates. 26-year-old Robert Champion<\/a> died shortly after he collapsed on a bus in Orlando, where he and other members of FAMU\u2019s famed Marching 100<\/a> were performing.<\/p>\n

Governor Rick Scott decided the state should be involved<\/a> in the death investigation. In a meeting with reporters last week, he said, \u201cI think it\u2019s very important that we do a thorough investigation, and I think it\u2019s also important that we review our hazing policies\u2026When things like this happen, you\u2019ve got to make sure in your organization, our universities in this case, that people feel comfortable coming forward, you know, if they see something like this because I don\u2019t want this to ever happen again.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Florida law<\/a> defines “hazing” as any action or situation that recklessly or intentionally endangers the mental or physical health of a student. Hazing charges range from misdemeanor to third degree felony.<\/p>\n

Tiffany Martin, a junior at FAMU, started hearing the hazing rumor almost immediately after Champion\u2019s death. \u00a0Since then, four students have been expelled<\/a> and all of the university\u2019s music groups have been suspended. She said, \u201cIt\u2019s kind of like divided, you know. There\u2019s some people saying that justice needs to be served, and then there\u2019s others kind of like, he knew what he was doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

An attorney representing Champion\u2019s family has announced a lawsuit<\/a> against the school. He said there is evidence that hazing contributed to the death and it happened on FAMU’s watch. The law appears to be on their side, according to Shawn Bayern, assistant professor at the Florida State University College of Law. Even if Champion willingly participated in hazing, Bayern says that doesn\u2019t mean others don\u2019t bear some responsibility for the tragic outcome. “I\u2019d encourage people to move away from the notion that just because somebody\u2019s an adult or just because they have some responsibility for their actions doesn\u2019t mean that other people might also have done something wrong in a way that hurt them directly,\u201d said Bayern.<\/p>\n

Gov. Scott has asked university system Chancellor Frank Brogan<\/a> to request that all university presidents reevaluate their hazing policies and procedures. Martin doesn\u2019t think the Champion case will change behaviors or hurt any groups on campus. She thinks that \u201cpeople are still going to join; they\u2019re still going to want to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

A study<\/a> by the National Collaborative for Hazing Research and Prevention found that more than half of college students involved in clubs, teams, and organizations have experienced hazing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is now investigating the death of a Florida A&M University (FAMU) student who had reportedly been hazed by his fellow band mates. 26-year-old Robert Champion died shortly after he collapsed on a bus in Orlando, where he and other members of FAMU\u2019s famed Marching 100 were performing. Governor Rick […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18],"tags":[1098,198,179,1099],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3419"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3419\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}