State lawmakers are not happy with the punishment LSU handed down following an extensive report that showed how LSU mishandled numerous sexual abuse cases. Two athletic administrators have been suspended, but during a legislative hearing on the issue, New Orleans Senator Karen Carter Peterson asked LSU officials how can they be trusted when they return to work.
“So you want to say fidelity is going to be the model moving forward, but they didn’t tell the truth and they were young people permanently harmed because they were sexually assaulted and no one listened,” said Peterson.
The two administrators, Verge Ausberry and Miriam Segar, were suspended for 30 and 21 days without pay respectively.
LSU interim president Thomas Galligan defended the penalties saying there was no policy in place at the time detailing how administrators should have acted when they were made aware of incidents of misconduct. But Franklinton Senator Beth Mizell says Ausberry and Segar should have made sure the cases were properly investigated.
“What policy was not in place to justify not protecting the victims, because I never had a job that would have not terminated me for lying and not protecting the people I was there to protect,” said Mizell.
Galligan told lawmakers the school is reforming the way it handles such cases and will do better in the future. But Slidell Senator Sharon Hewitt says LSU’s administration’s reaction to the report doesn’t inspire confidence.
“The fundamental problem is people do not believe we are committed to fixing this problem and why, because our actions don’t show that,” said Hewitt.
The Louisiana senate select committee on women and children passed a resolution asking LSU to reconsider the disciplinary actions it gave to Ausberry and Segar.
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