ESPN investigative reporter Mike Fish says former FAMU Director of Bands Julian E. White told ESPN he had never heard of the “Crossing Bus C” hazing ritual before Nov. 19th. That was the evening that drum major Robert Champion died after being subjected to the brutal rite of passage. Medical examiners ruled Champion’s death a homicide.Marching 100 member Keon Hollis, a drum major who also went through the “Crossing Bus C” initiation on Nov. 19th, says he met with White on Nov. 20 and told him what had happened the night of Champion’s death. Hollis' description of White's response suggests that the ex-band director knew the "Crossing Bus C" ritual had a long history in the Marching 100.
ESPN has posted video segments of Hollis and White's interviews.
Excerpts from Fish’s report are available after the jump.
According to Fish's story:
White, who has spent 50 years with the band as a student through his latest position as band director and chairman of the music department, told "Outside the Lines" in the presence of his attorney that he was unaware -- until that night -- of the brutal hazing ritual as well as all the inner workings of the band's secret society of unsanctioned subgroups -- claims that ring hollow with some current and former members. Now on paid administrative leave, he is driven to retain his job with the band while portraying the university president as soft on hazing and blaming those under his tutelage with paying only lip service to his warnings about longtime band rituals.
White swears he had never heard of the Bus C ritual. He claims no knowledge of Keon Hollis having crossed Bus C alongside Robert Champion, adding "I haven't talked with him, and he hasn't told me that."
Hollis, in a separate interview with "Outside the Lines," says he and the other drum majors met with White the next day in Orlando and detailed what had transpired on Bus C. He described White as having been told "everything."
After White huddled with the drum majors, Hollis says, "He kind of understood what happened. Bus C is something that's old. It's something that's been going on for a long time. And I remember him saying, 'I thought it had stopped? I thought it was over? Why are people still doing it?' So at that point he pretty much knew that it was about to be a lot of controversy going on as far as with the band and the school."