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The Ohio State University Marching Band (TBDBITL)

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Things that did catch my eye:

1. The lyrics to some of the songs, not because they were lewd - you expect that - but because they were inane, simply lining up your favorite swear words and trying to make them fit the rhythm of the music. I expect more from clever people.

2. The Captain Underpants night. That was a bomb waiting to explode.

3. The songs, comments, nicknames, that attacked a person's religion.

4. The involvement of alcohol (especially with underage students).

5. The fact that much of this took place with the director present and with his expressed or tacit approval.

Having survived my own youth, seen the movie Jackass, and having spent my adult life working with fifteen year-olds to twenty-somethings, none of this surprises me except number 5. Knowing where to draw the line in such work is hard to define, but it's a necessary component. The students don't see the dangers present in hazing or alcohol and they certainly don't see how quickly something innocent in their judgement can slide into something tragic. Witness the Florida A&M band incident from less than three years ago, or the fraternity initiation gone bad from almost any school year.
 
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sparcboxbuck said:
Anyone who joins a college band to walk in a straight line and play a horn didn't join the marching band for the right reasons.

Joining a college marching band to play music and walk in a straight line is on the same level as smoking Pot with Clinton... If you don't inhale, you did it the fuck wrong.
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Maybe, but that's not why you take the DIrector's job.
 
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Our "Band expert's" take on the Waters situation:

Should Ohio State Have Fired TBDBITL Director Jonathan Waters?

Here's a letter from a TBDBITL alumni who was mentioned in the report but never interviewed.

A Former Band Member Named In The TBDBITL Investigation Report Speaks

(note: we're having problems keeping our server up due to the high interest in these pieces... sorry #FirstWorldProblems)

UPDATE- We're upgrading our server currently. We've got a couple of other letters/comments from alumni that are scheduled to run this week as well.
 
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http://www.dispatch.com/content/sto...o_State_band_alumni_march_for_Jon_Waters.html

Ohio State band alumni march for Jon Waters

...

One of the march organizers, Lori Cohen, who was in the band from 1986 to 1990, said marchers want to represent the perspective of women who were in the band. The university report that led to Waters' firing says they were victims, she said, but they were not.

"We don't believe it's a sexualized culture, we believe it's a college culture." The report, she said, focused only on the negative: "They were small incidents pulled out of the entire context."

About a dozen of about 15 marchers are women. Cohen and other women on the march said they were never harassed and that male band members were protective of them.

There has been a groundswell of public support for Waters in the past few days, after an initial pact among many former band members not to speak with media. When the marching band performed at a Downtown concert on Saturday, many audience members flashed “We stand with Jon” signs. An airplane flew over the concert pulling a banner with the same message.

Cont'd ...
 
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New article: More Former TBDBITL Members Speak

MaliBuckeye said:
Our "Band expert's" take on the Waters situation:

Should Ohio State Have Fired TBDBITL Director Jonathan Waters?

Here's a letter from a TBDBITL alumni who was mentioned in the report but never interviewed.

A Former Band Member Named In The TBDBITL Investigation Report Speaks

(note: we're having problems keeping our server up due to the high interest in these pieces... sorry #FirstWorldProblems)

UPDATE- We're upgrading our server currently. We've got a couple of other letters/comments from alumni that are scheduled to run this week as well.
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I don't want to go all BWI, but clearly this issue is far from over and we seem to be back to helicopter parents and the PC nature of academia.

Again, I'm not surprised at most of what was listed in the complaint, but I remain surprised that Waters and his assistants would be present for much of what went on. What concerns me most is the presence of alcohol. Not because I hold some naive viewpoint about student drinking, but because: a) it's illegal for most college students b) a major concern on almost all campuses c) a contributing factor in so many college tragedies including sexual harassment.
 
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cincibuck said:
I don't want to go all BWI, but clearly this issue is far from over and we seem to be back to helicopter parents and the PC nature of academia.

Again, I'm not surprised at most of what was listed in the complaint, but I remain surprised that Waters and his assistants would be present for much of what went on. What concerns me most is the presence of alcohol. Not because I hold some naive viewpoint about student drinking, but because: a) it's illegal for most college students b) a major concern on almost all campuses c) a contributing factor in so many college tragedies including sexual harassment.
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Yeah, I'm still reading/learning about this as well...

It certainly doesn't help that the University (and a ton of other schools, as a part of a federal mandate) is investigating its Title IX (including sexual assault/harassment) compliance, including "culture" issues.

It's also a bit of a catch 22, it seems- if you don't supervise students while they do things, someone gets hurt and the university gets sued. If you do supervise them, there's a seemingly still under development protocol for how to respond without getting yourself in hot water.

And, at the risk of being too candid (since I work in the field), "Hey, you can't/shouldn't do that" doesn't carry a lot of weight among students who've had sunshine blown up their Mark May's since they were little. Personally, I've had more parents call me to chew me out for reprimanding their students than I care to talk about.
 
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A Former Band Member Named In The TBDBITL Investigation Report Speaks

If there is a better, more intelligent account of what this is all about I am anxious to read it.

It would appear that there were a couple of incidents that crossed some lines. But we are led to believe by the way articles are being written that these were inevitable outcomes of a sexual culture gone out of control. The consistent message coming from former band member makes it clear how off target this is. I haven't read all the links in this thread, but if someone has a link to a band member crying in relief that Jon Waters has been unmasked as the Jerry Sandusky of OSU please point me to it.

I went to HS in the 1960's (I will pause while you do the math) and if someone had peeled back the cover of the band buses they likely would have found girls giving BJs. It happened (or so I am told). Yet all the media can find is simulated sex and nicknames on a college campus? WTF!

If you dig deep enough into what kids are up to you WILL NOT like what you find (be that a BJ on a bus or a future President resisting the urge to inhale). They are kids. They do stupid shit. Then they grow up and do more stupid shit.

But we do need to protect kids from real harm. And we need to ensure that powerful institutions are prudent in protecting kids from real harm. Protect them from things like rape in an FSU dorm room or a PSU shower, or being sent up into an unsafe scissor-lift, or being sexually harassed when someone actually has a complaint of being sexually harassed.

How do we do that without over reacting? For starters you react to evidence of actual harm, not complaints from an offended parent. Of course, if your interest is media sensationalism and newspaper sales you take a different route.

As JOOBS points out, the media has harmed her far worse than anything anyone associated with the OSU band ever considered. Where is the accountability for that institution?
 
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