By Ellen J. Staurowsky, Ed.D., Senior Writer and Professor, Sports Media, Roy H. Park School of Communications, Ithaca College, staurows@ithaca.edu
Holding signs with messages like LSU Doesn’t Protect Victims, Expel Rapists, Where is Our Justice?, and LSU We Are Holding You Accountable, hundreds of students marched across Louisiana State University’s campus in Baton Rouge on Saturday, November 21, 2020 (Dube, 2020). The impetus for their action was a news report published by USA Today five days before highlighting concerns that campus administrators and coaches mishandled sexual assault cases involving both athletes and non-athletes and, in the aftermath, resisted public records requests to share reports of what happened (Jacoby, Armour, & Luther, 2020).
Allegations Against Former LSU Football Players Derrius Guice, Drake Davis, & Others
On August 7, 2020, pro football player and former LSU star running back Derrius Guice was released from the Washington Football team following his arrest on multiple charges of domestic violence (Fortier, Jhabvala, & Carpenter, 2020). Just over a week later, findings from a USA Today investigation revealed that in the span of one year, between 2016 and 2017, two female students alerted LSU coaches as well as an administrator and a nurse that Guice had raped them (Jacoby & Armour, 2020). Guice’s accusers stated that LSU officials declined to investigate the allegations because they did not believe the women. Both accusers claimed that LSU’s Title IX Office knew of the allegations, with one accuser indicating that the Title IX Office had reached out to her after a friend reported what had happened. She declined an offer from the Title IX Office to investigate. In the case of the other accuser, a female tennis player no longer at LSU, she claimed to have reported the incident directly to the Title IX Office but no follow up occurred.
The allegations against Guice also includes those of a third female student, Samantha Brennan, who worked part-time with the football team’s recruiting staff. She claims that Guice took a partially nude photo of her without her consent and shared it with the team’s equipment manager and possibly others (Jacoby et al., 2020).
According to the USA Today report as well as numerous other accounts, Guice is one among nine LSU football players who were reported to police for sexual misconduct and dating violence since head coach, Ed Orgeron, took over the program in 2016. Among those players is Drake Davis, a former wide receiver who was dismissed by LSU only after he pleaded guilty to three misdemeanors (two counts of battery on a dating partner and one count of violating a protective order). Accounts from Davis’s former girlfriend who was also on the women’s tennis team at LSU, her father, and a teammate indicate that as many as seven LSU officials (coaches, athletics administrators, an athletic trainer, and others) were aware of the abuse and did not report it (Jacoby et al., 2020).
LSU Coach & Athletic Administrator Cover Up?
Statements from former LSU athletes depict the coaches and administrators they worked with as more focused on the reputation of the athletic department and keeping violent male athletes eligible rather than protecting the health and safety of female athletes. In response, head football coach Ed Orgeron has denied knowing about Guice’s domestic abuse allegations and has issued at least two statements affirming his commitment to following Title IX policy and procedures (West, 2020a; 2020b). In the case of the co-coaches of the LSU tennis program, Mike and Julia Sell, their accounts of what they knew and when differ by a full year from the timeline described by Drake Davis’s former girlfriend as well as her father and at least one other teammate (Schlabach, 2020). According to USA Today, there was no evidence that emerged during their investigation that the athletic trainer, Donovan White or either of the Sells made a report to the Title IX coordinator (Schlabach, 2020).
LSU Resisting Requests to Share Reports & Documents
In the course of investigating rape allegations against Derrius Guice by former LSU female students in August of 2020, USA Today journalists requested reports from LSU’s campus police through a public records request yielding a partial response that withheld reports of criminal wrongdoing. Realizing that a report she had filed with the LSU Police Department in 2016 was missing from the information LSU shared with USA Today, Samantha Brennan requested copies and was met with resistance. After repeated phone calls starting on August 19, 2020, LSU finally released police reports filed by Brennan in 2016 but redacted Guice’s name as well as the names of witnesses. A second accuser, the tennis player who alleged that Guice had raped her, also requested a copy of the report she filed at LSU and was put off by the institution as well (Jacoby, Armour, & Luther, 2020).
USA Today and Brennan subsequently sued LSU to obtain a full copy of the report Brennan filed in 2016. In a hearing before Judge Judith Clark in the 19th District Court in the Parish of East Baton Rouge on November 23, 2020, LSU reiterated its position that the redactions in the report were reflective of their efforts to protect Brennan’s privacy and to protect the institution’s ability to conduct an investigation in the event she were to assert her right to pursue criminal charges. Counsel for LSU Katia Bowman argued that the institution’s decision to redact details from the report were required by Louisiana law given that at the time Brennan filed her report with the LSUPD she had expressed a desire to remain anonymous, to have her privacy rights protected, and she declined to have the report shared with other offices on campus (Cutrone, 2020).
Further Considerations: Impact of This Story on LSU’s Ability to Sign a New Chancellor
The timing of the investigation into LSU’s handling of sexual assault complaints brought by students coincides with the search for a new chancellor. Questions have been raised about the propriety of allowing one of the administrators on the search committee, executive deputy director of athletics and executive director of external relations Verge Ausberry, to continue in that role given his alleged failure to report an incident described to him in a text by former football player, Drake Davis (Ballard, 2020; Gallo & Kubena, 2020). Some have expressed concern that the institutional culture of alleged non-compliance with its own sexual harassment policy and federal law might inhibit LSU’s ability to attract a leader for the chancellor’s position who would be willing to take on the challenges the institution faces (Ballard, 2020).
LSU Commissions an Independent, Outside Review of Title IX Policies & Procedures
Within hours of USA Today’s published report (Jacoby et al., 2020), LSU’s interim president and professor of law, Thomas Galligan, announced that in response to concerns raised about the mishandling of sexual misconduct cases the university commissioned the Husch Blackwell law firm to complete an independent review of its Title IX policies and procedures. In a joint letter to the campus community issued by Galligan and athletic director, Scott Woodward, on the day of the first meeting with Husch Blackwell, on Wednesday, November 25, 2020, they documented efforts to “reinforce” reporting obligations and how to do so with all university leadership, the athletic department, and faculty and staff. They also noted that mandatory Title IX training was active and was required to be completed no later than December 31, 2020 (Staff, 2020).
References
Ballard, M. (2020, November 21). Many words but not much action by LSU in sexual assault allegations. The Advocate. Retrieved from https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/opinion/mark_ballard/article_905388a6-2b5c-11eb-82a6-37d31b135950.html
Cutrone, M. (2020, November 24). Former LSU student Samantha Brennan testifies before court, no decision made by judge yet. LSUrevielle.com. Retrieved from https://www.lsureveille.com/news/former-lsu-student-samantha-brennan-testifies-before-court-no-decision-made-by-judge-yet/article_7d6b32ac-2df5-11eb-80a6-d3065c5e5ff2.html
Galligan, T. (2020, November 17). Message from the president. Retrieve from https://lsu.edu/president/messages/2020/2020-11-19.php
Gallo, A., & Kubena, B. (2020, November 18). LSU official might have broken federal law after Drake Davis admitted he hit girlfriend. The Advocate. Retrieved from https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/sports/lsu/article_bfa592b6-29ae-11eb-94d1-2377391922ad.html
Dube, L. (2020, November 21). LSU students protest, call for action in light of sexual misconduct allegations. WAFB9.com. Retrieved from https://www.wafb.com/2020/11/20/lsu-students-protest-call-action-light-sexual-misconduct-allegations/
Fortier, S., Jhabvala, N., & Carpenter, L. (2020, August 7). Derrius Guice arrested on domestic violence charges, released by Washington’s NFL team. Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/08/07/derrius-guice-arrested/
Jacoby, K., & Armour, N. (2020, August 19). Two women say ex-Washington RB Derrius Guice raped them at LSU when he was a freshman. USA Today. Retrieved from https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/sec/2020/08/19/ex-washington-nfl-player-derrius-guice-accused-rape-while-lsu/3391053001/
Jacoby, K., Armour, N., & Luther, J. (2020, November 16). LSU mishandled sexual misconduct complaints against students, including top athletes. USA Today. Retrieved from LSU ignored law in handling complaints against Guice, others (usatoday.com)
Schlabach, M. (2020, November 19). Former LSU tennis player says her coach lied about knowing of abuse allegations. ESPN.com. Retrieved from https://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/30347563/former-lsu-tennis-player-says-coach-lied-knowing-abuse-allegations
Staff. (2016, April). LSU policy statement 73: Sexual Harassment. Retrieved from https://www.lsu.edu/policies/ps/ps_73.pdf
Staff. (2020, November 25). LSU officials meet with law firm Wednesday to discuss policies regarding sexual assault. WBRZ.com. Retrieved from https://www.wbrz.com/news/lsu-officials-meeting-with-law-firm-wednesday-to-discuss-policies-regarding-sexual-assault
West, G. (2020a, August 20). SU Coach Ed Orgeron Releases Statement Denying Former Player’s Claim He Knew of Guice Rape Allegations. Sports Illustrated. Retrieved from https://www.si.com/college/lsu/football/ed-orgeron-responds-guice-allegations
West, G. (2020b, November 16). Ed Orgeron Comments on USA Today Article About LSU Mishandling of Sexual Misconduct Allegations. Sports Illustrated. Retrieved from https://www.si.com/college/lsu/football/ed-orgeron-responds-usa-today-article
