VSU leader: End ‘outdated rituals’

ETTRICK, Virginia  --  Marvell Edmondson and Jauwan Holmes were “young men of promise, young men of potential” whose legacy can serve to help end the type of behavior that led to their deaths, Virginia State University President Keith Miller said Friday.

“Outdated rituals performed in the name of brotherly love have no place in building a better world,” Miller told about 500 people at a memorial service in the VSU gymnasium.

“As an institution, as a community, we will not tolerate this behavior,” Miller said. “We must learn the lessons of Jauwan and Marvell to ensure that these young men’s deaths were not in vain.”

The two freshmen drowned April 20 as they tried to cross the Appomattox River on river rocks as part of an initiation for an unsanctioned social club called Men of Honor. Chesterfield County police on Friday confirmed through the medical examiner’s office that the cause of death was drowning.

Four men, including two VSU students, have been charged with hazing in the deaths.

Miller urged the mourners to “walk the walk, not just talk the talk. We must be the sermon, not just speak the sermon.”

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