It has come to many LSU students’ attention that Adelaide Russo, the former French studies department chair, is teaching a class this semester. Currently, she is accused of enabling and defending the actions of a rapist and abuser once employed by the university who has successfully fled the United States and remains a fugitive in France.

If Russo cannot suffer consequences before the conclusions of the investigation are publicly released because “due process requires that all parties be heard before there are findings,” as LSU Media Relations Director Ernie Ballard wrote in a statement regarding the situation, do not put her in a classroom with the very students that she is accused of abusing until the findings of the investigation are released.

Let her file papers. Let her print exams. Let her buy coffees for the office.

I demand that the details of the findings regarding the actions (and inactions) of Russo be released in a timely and public manner. It has been almost six months since The Advocate published the lawsuit against Russo and nearly four years since the 2018 arrest of Edouard d’Espalungue d’Arros in Rapides Parish for the sexual battery and rape of a University of Louisiana at Lafayette student. Until the details of the findings are released to the public, Russo should not be allowed to teach in the classroom or to interact with the very students that she is accused of dismissing and abusing.

Allowing her to continue to teach before the findings of the investigation are released is borderline criminally negligent and directly contrast all statements that LSU and the Department of French Studies have released regarding the multitude of sexual abuse scandals in recent years, i.e., that the department will “take concrete action in making sure that members of our community do not ever encounter such trauma.”

It is the responsibility of both school and public authorities to take appropriate action regarding this horrific situation, and from what has been made available to the public at present, it seems that neither LSU nor the judicial system of the state of Louisiana has prioritized the victims of this horrific case.

Ali Redmann is an LSU French junior.