Fired OSU band leader’s lawsuit continues

Associated Press

COLUMBUS

Two years after Ohio State University fired its marching band director for failing to rein in a “sexualized culture,” a lawsuit against the university continues even as the ex-director has moved on and the band has a new leader.

Jonathan Waters was fired July 24, 2014, after a two-month investigation concluded he knew about but failed to stop rituals including students marching partially clad and performing sexually themed stunts that led to sometimes explicit nicknames. His firing was the first high-profile act of the university’s new president, Michael Drake.

Waters, a former band member and assistant director, had led the band since 2012 and created halftime shows considered revolutionary. Videos of the morphing and dancing images the band created on the field, such as a galloping horse and a moonwalking Michael Jackson, have drawn millions of hits on YouTube and landed the band in an Apple commercial.

Last month, the Ohio Court of Claims dismissed one of Waters’ two lawsuits, which claimed the school’s statements surrounding his dismissal were slanderous and defamatory and invaded his privacy.

After Waters’ firing was announced, the university released a 23-page report dated two days earlier in defense of the firing and detailing numerous allegations about the culture of the band that goes by the acronym “TBDBITL.”

Although Waters’ discrimination complaint continues in federal court, he has a new position and the Ohio State band has a new director. In February, the university named Christopher Hoch, the interim marching band director, to the permanent position effective through May 31, 2020.

In April, Heidelberg University, a small, private university in Tiffin about two hours north of Columbus, hired Waters as its band director

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