Charges were brought against 13 people after an investigation into the death of drum major Robert Champion, a Florida prosecutor announced on Wednesday. Pam Champion, the mother of the deceased drum major, said on Wednesday she had been hoping more severe charges would be filed in her son’s death, which authorities said was the result of hazing. Pam Champion told CNN’s “AC 360” that hazing, which prosecutors report is a term for bullying, doesn’t amply describe what happened to her 26-year-old son. “The term ‘hazing’ in itself is a very light term,” Pam Champion told Anderson Cooper. “I don’t look at it as being a form of bullying. Hazing is a very brutal assault … against another person.”
Medical examiners said the FAMU student died “within an hour of a hazing incident during which he suffered multiple blunt trauma blows to his body.” State Attorney Lawson Lamar said, “This is a homicide by hazing.” According to Lamar, the case built by investigators does not support a charge of murder. Officials report 11 individuals each face one count of third-degree felony hazing resulting in death. Each person is also accused of two counts of first-degree misdemeanor hazing. Two people each face a single count of misdemeanor first-degree hazing. Robert Champion collapsed in Orlando on a bus, which was carrying members of FAMU’s Marching 100, after a November 2011 football game that included a halftime performance by the group. The death of the drum major brought renewed public scrutiny to hazing, a tradition that has gone on for years. The university said it has taken steps to eliminate the problem.
