The university has announced an independent review
“Maybe he just had a problem that was Mercurial Vapors beyond his ability to control it,” Sigal said. But in general, “If the person at the top issued a zero tolerance policy for hazing and oversaw what the people under him were doing, then there was no hazing.”
The details of Champion’s death are unclear. Authorities, the school and an attorney for his family said hazing played a role, but no one has been willing to shed any more light on what actually happened Nov. 19 after the football team lost to its rival Bethune-Cookman. Police have said only that Champion started vomiting and complained he couldn’t breathe before he collapsed on a band bus outside their hotel in Orlando.
The university has announced an independent review and Gov. Rick Scott has asked state investigators to join the sheriff’s department in its investigation.
University officials declined interview requests for this story, but president James Ammons, who earned his bachelor’s and master’s from FAMU, issued a statement late Tuesday.
“The university has a zero tolerance policy toward hazing. Period. But it is becoming increasingly clear that hazing continues to exist—at FAMU and across the country at other universities, colleges and other elements—because hazing survives and thrives in a culture of secrecy and a conspiracy of silence. I am committed to illuminating this dark corner of Mercurial Vapor Superfly Florida A&M University and the American culture … illuminating it and eradicating it.”
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