Tallahassee, Florida- September 10, 2012 (AP)
LIVE: FAMU Files Response in Hazing Suit 9-11 6pm
LIVE: FAMU Requests Hazing Lawsuit Be Dismissed 9-11 Noon
FAMU Response to Hazing Lawsuit
Tallahassee, Florida- September 11, 2012
FAMU responds to a civil lawsuit filed against the university by the parents of hazing victim Robert Champion. The response: The suit should be thrown out.
Robert Champion's parents filed the civil suit because they say FAMU is responsible for their son's death. FAMU has filed a response saying that Champion contemplated whether to particpate in hazing acts referred to as "crossing over" and ultimately made the adult choice to go through with it.
Lillian Oglesby, FAMU graduate student: "Everyone has signed a form saying that we will not haze and that we know what hazing is."
Attorneys for FAMU say Robert Champion signed that same form...
"But, do people follow the rules?" asked Oglesby.
In a motion filed Monday to have the civil lawsuit against the university dropped, FAMU says Champion didn't follow the rules.
The court documents say, "Just a few months before this death, Mr. Champion acknowledged in writing that he fully understood the unlawfulness, physical brutality and health dangers of participating in hazing."
The filings point out that Champion was a "26-year-old grown adult" when the Marching 100 drum major participated in a hazing ritual with band mates that ultimately claimed his life last November 19th after the Florida Classic in Orlando.
"I don't feel that was all on him. But, I do feel as an adult, you should have been able to stabilize your own situation to inform someone that if you are uncomfortable with something you didn't want to do."
The filings say, "Mr. Champion decided that he was "sure he wanted to' engage in the hazing" and says he "allowed his adult body to be deprived of oxygen, punched, kicked and hit with objects."
Florida A&M University is asking a judge to throw out a lawsuit filed against the university by the family of a drum major who died last November after a hazing ritual.
Monday's filing by the university said the lawsuit from the family of Robert Champion should be dismissed on several grounds. Among them, the university claims Champion should have refused to participate in hazing events. The university also says taxpayers should not be held liable for what it called Champion's imprudent and avoidable decision.
An attorney for the Champion family says it's committed to clearing Champion's name and holding FAMU accountable for allowing hazing to go on for years.
Champion died after being beaten by fellow band members aboard a bus parked outside an Orlando hotel after a football game.
AP-WF-09-11-12 0050GMT
Replies
That's what I was saying from the start. That Ammons was going around being all mushy. It's the Universities image that come first. Gotta think like a corporation.
shouldnt have been in place for him to have to make a choice.thats bout the worse excuse to ever be given for a crime.if i was a judge i would stick it to their azz even harder for coming up with that. like blaming any number of our youth for being gunned down at a club or anywhere else saying" they shoulda known not to go to that club cause black folks dont know how to act." if i was an attorney i would be soo motivated by this statement from the university.
Gotta think like a corporation. Thats what need to happen
Chris - Pinnacle of Hummanity... said:
Actually thats a valid argument. ITs not morally right but its a valid legal point. My fraternity had a very similar incident only difference was that the person who was in the intake process had no evidence of hazing or foul play. Although Champions was hazing, it wasnt 100% the fault of the people who did the hazing. Hazing works two ways: the giver and receiver. Its like sex. You cant start doing it then cry rape.
My heart does go out to his family because a death is HORRIBLE but legally I see FAMU getting off free with this one.
Even though champion allowed the hazing, I think famu should still be held more accountable. Famu, like many other HBCUs, is built off of traditions. Understand this, traditions dont die. HBCU band programs have been built around hazing for years. Think I am lying, listen to an old head from the 70s talk about the band. All of their band directors actually marched in the program. Not to mention that this is not FAMUs first case with this hazing. What I am trying to say is that the administrators, band directors, and whomever know about it. They dont fully address the situations like hazing until it is too late. Now a person is dead and you mean to tell me that the school should not be held even a little responsible. Ok say FAMU gets off what are they gonna do, start preparing for games? The message given then is that band can kill you if you say its ok. The whole thing of them trying to use this as an arguement baffles me lol....
famu wants to say he shouldn't have chosen to go through that beat down (which I do agree with), However, in that case, if everybody had that mindset and chose NOT to get hazed like that, how would these HBCU marching bands look like now??
WCTV will be Following up on this story as more information become available
This is disgusting, pure and simple.
Guess with the band m.i.a. no one is going to the games.
When this first happen some close friends of mine and I had this discussion because their arguement is they were in Frats and they choosed to get hazed at any point they could have walked away. I Countered with there had to be reports of hazing and obviously the steps that are being implemented now should have been when they first notice hazing accidents it's too bad a death had to happen for that. Second you should'nt have to be hazed to be in a Univeristy sponsored organization. Which leads to my last point the 100 is a sponsored organization of FAMU therefore liability falls to them end of case!
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