Posted on 12/03/2008 4:48:22 AM PST by TornadoAlley3
BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) - Three members of the Southern University band were beaten with a 2x4 wooden board as part of initiation into the band's French horn section, a probable cause report says. Two of the victims remained hospitalized in serious condition Tuesday.
Six band members were arrested Tuesday and deputies were looking for a seventh suspect. Tuesday morning, East Baton Rouge Parish sheriff's deputies arrested Harvey Harrison and Carlos-Andres Carter, both 19 years old. They are each charged with aggravated battery and ritualistic acts, both felonies. The pair denied any knowledge of the incident, investigators said.
Tuesday afternoon, four additional suspects were arrested and also charged with aggravated second-degree battery and ritualistic acts. The suspects include 23-year-old Jeremy Dixon of Natchez, Mississippi; 21-year-old Joseph Lee Webb of Columbus, Georgia; 22-year-old Lagarian Bridgewater of Baton Rouge; and 20-year-old Aubrey Harris of Canton, Mississippi. Deputies are still looking for a seventh suspect, identified as 20-year-old Clifton Taylor of Baton Rouge.
The probable cause report states that according to a witness, as part of the initiation ritual, "The three subjects were blindfolded and told to remove their shirts." The report also states, "They then had water splashed on them as senior members of the organization struck them numerous times with open hands. The three victims were then told to bend over at the waist and the senior members began striking them numerous times with a large wooden board, commonly referred to as a 2x4. One victim elected to stop the ritual after he had been struck over 50 times with the board. In a statement to investigators, he identified seven members of the French horn section of the band who were present at the home and participated in the ritual."
According to the report, the other two victims "did not ask to have the ritual halted, and later sought medical treatment at a hospital for their injuries." The incident happened at a home on McClure Road in East Baton Rouge Parish as part of a hazing ritual to be "initiated into an unofficial fraternity known as 'Mellow Phi Fellow' for the French horn section of the band," the probable cause report states.
The university released another statement Tuesday about the incident:
"We are still cooperating with law enforcement authorities in their investigation of this matter. Today's arrests resulted from the ongoing investigation. We have a zero tolerance for hazing at Southern University and we will ensure that violators of our policy prohibiting hazing are sanctioned and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."
The band took part in Saturday's Bayou Classic football game in New Orleans, which featured Southern University versus Grambling State. Sources say hazing is nothing new within the Southern University band, but it depends on your definition of hazing. Our source within the band says most often, hazing usually hovers around paddling, slapping, or neckin,' which is a stiff slap to the back of the head. It is in the form of older students picking on younger students, so they may earn their letters. Sources say the two students in the hospital are both freshmen and from out of state.
Louisiana Law on Ritualistic Acts
Southern University band salutes Obama
Who in the hell is so stupid to allow themselves to be beaten by a 2x4 so they can be in a marching band???
I don’t even think I could be mad at the people doing it, although they are sick twisted *&^%$ to want to, it’s the idiots who allowed them to do it to them that are the really screwed up people here.
Three members of the Southern University band were beaten with a 2x4 wooden board as part of initiation into the band’s French horn section, a probable cause report says. Two of the victims remained hospitalized in serious condition Tuesday.
And here you parents thought those 10’s of thouands of dollar you were paying, was for an education..
Well these idiots certainly learned a lesson.
French horn?!?!? The most difficult-to-play, weak-sounding-even-in-the-hands-of-fine-musicians and generally impotent-looking brass instrument?
Lord knows what happened to the tuba and bass drum players then.
This is from the ONION, right? What idiot would submit to being beaten with a 2x4....., and to play the french horn in a marching band????? Life is sure weird.
Just in case their readers have never heard of a 2x4 before.
“Roll out the old gold goblet
With the frat crest on it
and I’ll roll out another keg of beer.
Well we all came to college
but we didn’t come for knowledge
and we’ll raise hell while we’re here!”
;-)
“Ritualistic Acts” are a crime in that state? Man, the local Masons must be worried!
There is a joke here somewhere about the French.
Oh, but this isn't just any band! This is the Southern University Human Jukebox marching band!
Check out this awesome video at their website:
http://www.humanjukebox.com/
it totally doesn't freeze up again and again making the school look like a collection of substandard morons. There's even an application there so you can join the band, I know I filled it out. See, you can print it out and mail it in with a stamp and envelope, it's not on line or nothin'. And they even ask if you own your own instrument, that's a plus right there, cause it's hard to share with a bandmate.
And French Horn is definitely the toughest instrument in the band. This story just proves it. Just like in high school, you don't mess with the guys in the knitting club because they'll stab you with their knitting needles.
Owl_Eagle
“When the stock market crashed,
Franklin Roosevelt got on the television
and didn’t just talk about
the princes of greed, he said,
‘Look, here’s what happened.’"
-Slow Joe Biden
“Who in the hell is so stupid to allow themselves to be beaten by a 2x4 so they can be in a marching band???”
Who the heck is stupid enough to beat someone with a 2x4 as a prank?
A single blow from a 2x4 could crush someone’s skull or break a bone. What idiot picked up a 2x4 and said to themselves “this would be good for hazing”?
Roll out those silken panties
That used to be my grannies
And we’ll all have another round of beer (more beer!)
With the hole in the middle
Where my grandpa used to fiddle
In those good old golden years.
Roll out that silver goblet
With Star and Lamp upon it
and we’ll all have another round of beer (more beer!)
For its not for the knowledge
That we came to college
But to get drunk while we’re here
Google
band & hazing
and you will see that it is not limited to Southern U.
Here’s a severe injury:
http://marchingsport.com/m/?p=192
“Former FAMU band member wins $1.8 million verdict in hazing suit
December 2, 2004
A former Florida A&M University marching band member who was badly beaten during a 2001 hazing incident won a $1.8 million verdict in a civil battery case.
Marcus Parker, now 21, was beaten so badly with a paddling board during a Marching 100 initiation that one of his kidneys temporarily shut down.
He has been through four surgeries, and will likely require a kidney transplant, said his lawyer David Frank.”
Mellow Phi Fellow.......wow is that totally GAY or what!!!!
I was thinking the same thing. All the Catholic priests must be worried too.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.