By Denise-Marie Balona, The Orlando Sentinel –
ORLANDO, Fla. — Former Florida A&M University President James Ammons has maintained that he did not know until January about recommendations from two key officials to suspend the university’s marching band just days before the hazing death of drum major Robert Champion last fall.
A new document obtained by the Orlando Sentinel, however, indicates that a FAMU attorney and the school’s chief spokeswoman told Ammons about the recommendations in the weeks following Champion’s beating death in Orlando on Nov. 19.
The document — an undated statement written by Dean of Students Henry Kirby — offers another conflicting account of who knew what and when. FAMU trustees and others have expressed frustration about the difficulty in knowing whose account is accurate as it relates to hazing within the school’s famous Marching 100 band.
In the one-page statement, Kirby said he went to university attorney Avery McKnight after Champion’s funeral, but before a Dec. 9 board of trustees meeting. In his conversation with McKnight, Kirby wrote, he told the attorney he did not think Ammons was aware of the recommendations he and then-police chief Calvin Ross made at a Nov. 16 meeting.
“He (McKnight) expressed surprise that the recommendations were made before the Classic because he was not aware of such, and subsequently indicated that he would talk with the President and try to arrange a meeting with myself and Chief Ross,” wrote Kirby, who has declined interviews with the Sentinel.
“Atty. McKnight and I talked at least two times and he indicated he had talked with the President and that the President would call me and Chief to meet with both of us on this matter. The meeting never occurred for whatever reason(s).”
Ross told the Sentinel last month that the recommendations came during that Nov. 16 meeting to discuss band hazing. Kirby’s notes about the meeting, obtained by the Sentinel earlier this month, seem to confirm Ross’ account.
Kirby wrote in his statement that he also told FAMU spokeswoman Sharon Saunders about the recommendations and that Saunders spoke to Ammons about them.
A meeting with Ammons was held on Jan. 4, after Saunders became involved, according to Kirby.
Ammons has said he became aware of the recommendations through “an update about the Nov. 16 meeting in January.”
The Jan. 4 meeting, held in the president’s conference room, was attended by a number of top officials, including four of the six who were at the November meeting. Kirby’s statement does not indicate how Ammons responded during the meeting.
Ammons could not be reached for comment. McKnight and Saunders declined interviews.
