Bethune-Cookman: No other students coming forward to support hazing claim

Trudie Kibbe Reed, Ed.D
President
Bethune-Cookman University

DAYTONA BEACH, Florida - A former member of the Bethune-Cookman Marching Wildcats said he could never predict when upper classmen baritone (horn) players would force him and other freshmen to do strenuous exercises behind a school building in August and hit them in the back of the neck after band practice.

"Our heads would be down the majority of the time and you couldn't see and it was dark," said Christopher King, about what he called hazing incidents after 9 p.m. behind the School of Business. "It was numerous times. You never knew (when it would happen.)"

The exercises, King said in a phone interview this week, included squatting with their arms out and heads down while being hit in the back of the neck. The breaking point, the 18-year-old said, was when he and the other five freshmen in his section were one day made to roll in the muddy water.

"We would run into the water and get back up and get slaps in the back of the head. Roll in the water again and slap in the back of the head again.

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