The repercussions of a decision by the DeKalb County School District to suspend marching band and drum line activities indefinitely are already being felt by band members hoping to land scholarships for the coming school year.
At the Georgia High School Senior All Star Bowl this Sunday, Alabama State University plans to award $21,000 scholarships during a halftime drum line competition at the Georgia Dome to members nominated by their schools.
The bowl features the top 100 senior metro Atlanta high school football players from all school divisions.
Five metro Atlanta high schools were expected to be represented in the halftime “Battle of the Drum Lines”: West Lake, Jonesboro, Tri-Cities, Stephenson and Southwest DeKalb. The four-year scholarship, covering room and board, awaited a member from each band.
Stephenson and Southwest DeKalb, however, pulled out of the drum line competition this week as the school district suspended band activity after it said it documented evidence of inappropriate activity within some band programs.
Stephenson blamed the suspension of band activities for its decision to pull out of the Dome event, according to a report on Channel 2 Action News. Southwest DeKalb said it pulled out to focus on another upcoming event.
District spokesman Walter Woods said neither Stephenson nor Southwest DeKalb had indicated to the district that they had planned to participate in the Sunday bowl event.
Woods also said that while the suspension of band activity is indefinite and districtwide, activities would be permitted on a case-by-case basis depending on discussions with principals and band directors. The spokesman said some district band directors were in Chicago this week for a convention.
The spokesman said the district would make every effort to see to it that band scholarships are not jeopardized by the district’s decision.
With Stephenson and Southwest DeKalb out of Sunday’s competition, the organizer, James Oliver, director of the Alabama State Hornets marching band, told Channel 2, “It makes it kind of rotten now.” Oliver also said he “feels bad” for the students missing out on the scholarships.
Woods said the district continues to field calls as it looks into whether there were more incidents of inappropriate behavior within the district’s band programs.
“We have taken a lot of parent calls over the last 24 hours,” he told Channel 2. “Some have come forward with information they want us to look into.”
Allegations of hazing at Florida A&M University have reverberated in DeKalb County, where two victims graduated from Southwest DeKalb. Marching band member Robert Champion died Nov. 19 from what police believe were injuries from hazing. FAMU clarinetist Bria Hunter was seriously injured in an earlier alleged hazing incident. Two of the three band mates who were charged with punching her hard enough to break her leg also were Southwest DeKalb graduates.
In its announcement Wednesday, the district said 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.
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