Band Professor Claims to Have Resigned First

The attorney for a band professor at Florida’s A&M University, Anthony Simons III, said his client, along with another client, a staff member by the name of Diron Holloway, had chosen to resign from their positions just one week ago, prior to being terminated, which took place on Thursday. A defense attorney, Mutaqee Akbar, says that each of the men who once worked as band professors at A&M University said they had nothing to do with the hazing activities that took place two years ago, back in 2010. These professors also claim that they received notice of being dismissed from their positions by the 16^th of April but chose to resign before they could even be fired.

Akbar claims that the two men did not have much of a possibility to fight the accusations of being involved in hazing. However, they continue to deny that any such thing took place and believes that officials for FAMU simply feel like they have to do something because of what went on and because of that, they wanted to terminate these band professors. Officials for the Florida A&M University, however, say that actions were made against these particular professors due to allegations of having been involved in hazing specific band members. The officials did not leave a comment as to whether or not these faculty members were terminated or not.

The entire reason behind all of this is primarily due to an investigation report, which was released by the Police Department of Tallahassee on the 28^th of March. In the police report, both band professors, Diron Holloway and Anthony Simons III, were listed as suspects in a hazing incident that took place in Holloway’s very own house during the springtime of 2010. Holloway is 38 years old and was an associate professor and music director for those who play saxophones and clarinets. Simons is 37 years old and was the assistant professor of music for the tuba and the euphonium. Both were placed on administrative leave by James H. Ammons, the president of Florida A&M University and were not receiving pay while on leave.

Reports of these hazing incidents came from a number of different students who made claims that there were several faculty members present during the hazing who also happened to participate in the hazing of a number of fraternity members as a means of allowing these potential candidates to be initiated into the fraternity.  The reports of the hazing were made only two days after Robert Champion, who majored in drum, was killed during a hazing incident. It seems students decided it was time to speak up about the incidents, especially since it went past being fun and games and turned into something horrendous.