LSU, ex-students settle sexual misbehavior case
BATON ROUGE, La.– LSU and 10 former students who sued the school over declared mishandling of sexual attack and domestic violence problems versus football players and others at Louisiana’s flagship state university have actually settled the case.
“The Court has been advised that the parties in this matter have settled all of their claims and have agreed to agreeably solve this dispute,” United States District Judge Wendy Vitter wrote in a March 28 order dismissing the case.Settlement terms
have not been disclosed.Four of the plaintiffs in the 2021 civil
case accused previous star running back Derrius Guice of sexual misconduct. Another plaintiff, former LSU ladies’s tennis player Jade Lewis, stated LSU failed to effectively respond to reports that she was being beaten by former Tigers receiver Drake Davis while the 2 were in a relationship.The suit centered on federal Title IX laws which prohibit gender-based discrimination, harassment or violence.The claims from female students dating back about a decade caught up with former university leaders after they ‘d left the school.Former LSU football coach Les Miles and ex-university President F. King Alexander were lacked subsequent jobs elsewhere.Miles, who won a nationwide title while training at
LSU from 2005 to 2016, lost his job at Kansas in 2021. Oregon State fired Alexander as its president. He had the exact same job
at LSU when claims that Miles made incorrect sexual advances toward female students operating in the football office were kept private by the university and its law office in 2013– in spite of a recommendation by then-athletic director Joe Alleva that Miles be fired.LSU worked with the Husch Blackwell law firm to evaluate the university’s handling of sexual misconduct complaints and its report was widely distributed in 2021. The firm’s 148-page findings dealt with problems campus-wide, also looking, for example, at grievances against fraternity members. However the higher-profile grievances involved football players including Guice, who in 2020 was cut by his NFL club in Washington following a domestic violence arrest.Husch Blackwell concluded that LSU had lost in committing resources to Title IX compliance and instead tended to use more resistance than aid to those who reported sexual misconduct or abuse.Allegations of sexual misbehavior or physical abuse were supposedly submitted against nine players who contended under Ed Orgeron,
who succeeded Miles as coach during the 2016 season.Orgeron coached LSU to an unbeaten record and national championship in the 2019 season.Some of the implicated players were punished and eventually left LSU, however others, including Guice, left the school in good standing and were selected in the NFL draft.The Husch Blackwell evaluation intended criticism more at LSU administrators, keeping in mind that coaches normally do not have the competence to deal with sexual misbehavior problems
and need to refer them to Title IX compliance officials.The most extreme penalty handed down to present LSU staff members were suspensions of about a month to deputy athletic director Brink Ausberry and senior associate athletic director Miriam Segar. They were found to have actually mishandled numerous sexual misconduct grievances.