In the aftermath of allegations of hazing in the death of a drum major at Florida A&M, the name of one Atlanta-area high school kept popping up.

Robert Champion, who died Nov. 19, was a Southwest DeKalb High School graduate. FAMU clarinetist Bria Hunter, injured in an earlier alleged hazing incident, was also a Southwest DeKalb graduate, as were two of the three bandmates who were charged with punching her hard enough to break her leg. (The third defendant is a Druid Hills High School graduate.)

Worried by the connection, DeKalb County School System officials began questioning band directors and other school personnel throughout the system, and what they found was troubling.

"We have documented evidence of inappropriate activity that took place over the summer," system spokesman Walter Woods told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, announcing Wednesday afternoon that the school system was indefinitely suspending marching band activities at county high schools.

The school system's investigation unearthed some troubling "activity" beyond Southwest DeKalb, Woods said. He was not willing to disclose the nature of the incidents and said the investigation could take two months.

All marching, except in special cases such as an upcoming Martin Luther King Day parade performance, will be suspended pending the outcome of the probe.

"Our concern is that student safety needs to be assured," Woods said. "And we have a zero-tolerance policy for harassment or any other inappropriate behavior."

The suspension is sure to upset parents and students.

Keith Sailor, the president of Southwest DeKalb's band booster executive board, refused to comment when reached by telephone.

Michelle Lenhardt, whose eighth-grade son participated for the first time this year in the marching band at Towers High, said she didn't know how she was going to break the news to him.

"He's going to be pretty disappointed," said Lenhardt, who is a member of the band's booster club. The son's motivation and his grades improved after he took up the baritone horn, she said. Towers students looked after him, teaching him to play the instrument and read music. She attended the practices and said no hazing occurred.

"We would have known," Lenhardt said.

The treasurer of Southwest DeKalb's band booster club was shocked when a reporter told her the news Wednesday afternoon. School officials had not informed her.

“Are you serious?” Tameka Ashmon asked. Ashmon has two sons in the school’s marching band, one a freshman and one a junior. She’s been active with the booster club since the elder boy was a freshman, and she said she did not know of any band-related hazing.

“I’ve been active since I’ve been there, and I haven’t witnessed anything,” Ashmon said. “My sons have not been victims of hazing or inappropriate behavior.”

“Maybe I’m oblivious,” she said, “but we have a lot of fun.”

She said there was one reported incident of hazing two years ago, but it turned out to be nothing. A boy said the strap on his drum scratched his shoulder.

At least one DeKalb parent applauded the effort to search out problems. Latasha Walker, a leader of the anti-bullying group Advocates on Behalf of Children, said she considered hazing just another form of bullying. "Maybe that's one less child that may be injured or lose their life," she said.

While the football season is over, marching band students were concerned that they might miss spring events, such as the competition between bands during the DeKalb County Jamboree.

“Band is fun for me; it makes me sad that I’m not going to be able to do it," said Emma Simmons, a freshman clarinet player at Southwest DeKalb. She added that she had never seen any evidence of hazing. “We don’t get hazed," she said. "We’re getting punished for something that happened at a different school in a different state.”

Simmons said band members still have a lot of questions about what will happen to the program, but she said they were told that Jamboree might be canceled.

Woods said the district learned of two specific incidents over the summer involving two different bands that violated the school district’s harassment and bullying policies. He would not be more specific except to say there were no injuries. Had the system learned of the infractions earlier, it would have suspended activities during marching band season, he said. Last week was the end of the  football season, he said, and most marching is over. He said the ban doesn’t affect in-class instruction or other band activities.

DeKalb’s marching bands aren’t scheduled to perform in any bowls this year, but four high schools will go ahead with plans to perform in Stone Mountain’s King Day parade in January because they have already committed to take part.

D. Smith, a Westlake High School graduate and an alumnus of FAMU, said he thought the FAMU/Southwest DeKalb connection might have been overstated. He pointed out that several generations of Southwest DeKalb band directors have been FAMU graduates (including Don Roberts and James Seda) and that the DeKalb school sends many graduates on to FAMU.

Nicholas Thomas, the band director at Southwest DeKalb from 2001 to 2009, said "my experience at Southwest DeKalb was wonderful." He said the band performed twice in the Rose Bowl parade, had its own reality show, and that students never showed any indication of hazing or any violence at all, other than the horseplay that can be expected of young people.

"That seems so far-fetched to me on the high school level," he said.

Staff writers Christian Boone and Katie Leslie contributed to this article.