TALLAHASSEE — WCTV met with FSU President John Thrasher for the first time today since back-to-back arrests of two FSU football players, both accused of punching women.

Thrasher is pushing for changes at bars that stay open late and allow minors inside – and he’s already met with the football team to stress the high stakes of bad behavior. Behavior that, in Deandre Johnson’s case, was caught on tape and seen across the country.

President Thrasher said in the WCTV interview:

“I was devastated by it. I was devastated by it. It was regrettable because I found particularly later on what a good young man this kid is.

“As I told the team, the worst mistake he made, obviously, hitting the woman was a bad mistake, but I just wish he hadn’t have been there. I just wish he hadn’t have been in that situation and put himself in that situation. That’s the message we are trying to send to these athletes because if you don’t go to those kind of places, these kind of problems probably aren’t going to happen.

“We’re working on a course where we are going to ask the athletes to participate in. It’ll deal with confidence. It’ll deal with character. It’ll deal with social responsibility. All the things we think that these folks ought to be exposed to and it’ll be open to every student not just to our athletes, but to every single student.”

Thrasher also says he intends to reach out to city and county leaders to discuss bars’ hours of operation.

WCTV