After a four-month long review, former Ohio Attorney General Betty Montgomery has released her findings into the Ohio State University Marching Band. The University asked Montgomery to investigate the culture of the band in the wake of the firing of director Jon Waters. And as WOSU reports, Montgomery found additional examples of of inappropriate behavior and poor university oversight of the band. The Marching Band Culture Task Force, led by Betty Montgomery, found what Ohio State University reported this summer: the band, for decades, tolerated inappropriate behavior and traditions, many of a sexualized nature and fueled by alcohol. Decades-long traditions and behaviors which have long outlived social approval have been permitted to exist," Montgomery said.
Montgomery noted tensions between the band and the School of Music allowed the marching band to distance itself from university supervision for decades. She said the university had very limited knowledge about what went on behind the scenes of the band. The band had drifted for years away from real oversight, real day to day oversight. Notably, Montgomery added the marching bands success and popularity fed the unseemly culture. Its permitted the band leaders to become iconic and, frankly, in many ways, overshadow effective university oversight.
As long as the band performed well, the difficulties associated with effective oversight, fan and alumni criticism, structural and personality difficulties within the university itself, were not addressed.
The task force found subtle and overt peer pressure in the band that contributed to alcohol abuse and three sexual assaults within two years. Band members we have talked to say they were told they did not have to participate in traditions that made them feel uncomfortable. But Montgomerys report said that caution offered little protection to first-year members who just wanted to fit in. Ninety-eight percent of them probably come here and have wanted to be a member of the band since they were in junior high school, or high school," Montgomery said. "Was some of the behaviors, some of the hazing, that was going on and that...it was a cost of being part of the band.
Fired band director Jon Waters maintains he was trying to right the wrongs in the band. But according to the task force findings, some of Waters behavior only reinforced the culture. The report states Waters pushed back when police said band members were intoxicated at one of the late-night Ohio Stadium underwear marches. Waters said the claims were drastically distorted. The investigation also found Waters took part in band member produced videos where he made sexually-charged remarks and was mooned by a band member. We asked Waters about the videos. He called them satirical and said band staff reviewed them before they were shown. So are you saying, Jon, that you havent said anything inappropriate or acted in any inappropriate way on these videos because you screened them yourself?," WOSU asked. "The staff screened them, and in some years I screened them, and some years others on the staff screened them. But I will say that overall I was the agent of change for the culture of the band and I stand by that," Waters replied. Montgomerys report made 37 recommendations to ensure the culture of the band changes. It recommends the university create a Band Coordinating Committee to oversee band policies and procedures, accountability and compliance. The report recommends mandatory training for band staff and squad leaders on sexual harassment, alcohol abuse, hazing and time and stress management. Ohio State declined to be interviewed for the story, but its spokesman Chris Davey wrote in a statement that the [university] will continue to make whatever changes are necessary to university oversight to ensure that the unacceptable cultural problems detailed in this report are simply not part of the future of our great band. While the band and the university continue to move forward, Waters still hopes to get his job back. He is suing the university for reinstatement as well as $1 million in damages. Montgomerys report did not rule on whether Waters' termination was justified. She said that was not part of the scope of her investigation.