New allegations of band hazing officials looking for a way to stop a problem they thought had been tamed

TALLAHASSEE, FLA.
Hit a wrong note on the trumpet and get whacked on the elbow with a mouthpiece.

Miss a dance step and get pummeled in the head by fellow band members taunting with the sing-song rhyme "Little Bunny Foo Foo."

Get invited to a party, only to be ordered to squat in "The Thinker" position and get paddled so many times your buttocks swell.

Public records from Florida A&M University (FAMU) police reveal a pattern of abusive hazing in the Marching 100 band that has gone on for years.

Known around the world as a great college band, FAMU's Marching 100 have strutted dazzling high-stepping, body-twisting moves from Washington to Paris.

But to its members and university officials, the band is notorious for something else: humiliating and beating freshmen members as part of a hazing ritual that goes back four decades.

"Back to the '50s," said William P. Foster, the former band director who retired last July after 52 years. "All this is a spillover from the fraternities' and sororities' initiation and pledge weeks, both physical and mental hazing. No amount of pleading or understanding would get rid of it."

The current Marching 100 director, Julian White, said the band is taking "very strong steps to ensure we have zero tolerance for hazing."

Yet year after year, another investigation into hazing occurs. Those caught hazing are back marching in the band next football season, and the hazing tradition continues.

Currently, there is an ongoing investigation that has resulted in the suspension of 12 band members. The investigation has uncovered that hazing has landed one Marching 100 band member in the hospital. On Nov. 13, White reported to university officials and police that Ivory Lucky, a sophomore clarinet player from Ocala, was beaten on Nov. 9, during a hazing ritual held at another student's apartment. Most of the blows were delivered by female clarinet players, according to Tallahassee Police Department reports. Reached at his hospital room, Lucky declined to comment.