In a blog entry at BlackAmericaWeb, blogger Tonyaa Weathersbee takes students to task for the recent hazing death of Florida A&M University marching-band drum major Robert Champion. She says they engaged in destructive behavior.

Florida A&M University drum major Robert Champion died last month -- likely from hazing.
Now the survival of a lot of other things at the historically black university is looking shaky as well.

The famed Marching 100, a band that has performed at Super Bowls, at the Grammys and in Paris, has been suspended. Their performance at Carnegie Hall is off. So are performances by the music department.

And the band director, Julian White, a former neighbor of mine here in Jacksonville -- so dedicated to his art that his life story probably ought to be written in musical notes instead of words -- must now fight to salvage his job and his legacy.

Things weren’t supposed to turn out like this.

But the blame for Champion’s death doesn’t lie with White, or even with the president of the school, James Ammons.

It lies with the students who did the hazing, those who tolerate it and with the fact that too many young black people can’t seem to embrace opportunity long enough -- or the responsibility that goes along with it -- to let go of the habits and mindsets that can destroy it all for them.

Read Tonyaa Weathersbee's entire blog entry at BlackAmericaWeb.

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