Louisiana legislators heard testimonies from sexual assault survivors and concerned LSU community members in a hearing Wednesday which was convened to examine how Louisiana’s public colleges and universities handle sexual assault cases.
Three survivors who were either former or current LSU students came forward publicly for the first time Wednesday, March 10 at the Senate Select Committee on Women and Children hearing. The meeting lasted 10 hours and included testimonies, public comments and questions from legislators before the committee released a statement addressing LSU’s mishandling of Title IX and sexual assault reports.
“My name is Abby Owens. I was raped by Derrius Guice at LSU in 2016. Today is the first day that I’m publicly disclosing my identity,” Owens said as she detailed her experiences with the former football player.
Owens said she originally blamed herself for the incident because she “got too drunk,” and was hesitant to come forward with her story because she feared she wouldn’t be believed. When her father confronted LSU Women’s Tennis Coach Julia Sell that Owens had been raped by a football player, Sell’s alleged response was “I don’t believe her, she’s a liar.”
Owens said when she learned of this interaction weeks later, her fears about coming forward were confirmed and with only 18 credit hours left until she could graduate, she dropped out of the University.
“I felt so unappreciated, unvalued,” Owens said. “I was scared to be there, I felt unsafe, unprotected, and so I left.”
Former LSU student Calise Richardson also came forward publicly for the first time at the hearing, testifying that she was repeatedly abused by former LSU football player Drake Davis and Guice attempted to rape her.
Richardson said she was “confused” about what to do after Davis abused her and that she wasn’t aware of Title IX policies, but she eventually reported the incidents to Athletics Department employee Sharon Lewis and another member of administration.
“I was not ready to talk about the details of my abusive relationship, but I tried,” Richardson said. “I told them I was scared of him. This moment is still burned into my mind: they looked me in the eye and laughed at me.”
When Richardson again came forward with information about Guice’s attempted rape, the response from administration was, “why would you let him into your room if you didn’t want anything to happen?”
“I would like to think this a systemic failure, rather than an intentional construct within the LSU football office,” Richardson said.”But sadly, I do not think that at all.”
Richardson and the other survivors’ descriptions of many of the abusive events they experienced left several legislators in tears, many profusely thanking them for their bravery and courage in coming forward.
Mass communication junior Ricky Bryant also testified as a victim of sexual assault. He said he was lucky to have places like the non-profit STAR (Sexual Trauma Awareness and Response) assist him when LSU would not.
“Survivors should not have to relive their experiences before a legislative caucus to get their university to take action,” Bryant said.
Former students Jade Lewis and Samantha Brennan, both of whom are mentioned in the USA Today article, heavily critiqued the Husch Blackwell report that was released Friday, March 5 at an LSU Board of Supervisors meeting.
“There were many omissions and fabrications in the [Husch Blackwell] report,” Lewis said.
Lewis joined the meeting via call and shared her own experiences with Davis and Guice. She detailed the domestic violence in her relationship with Davis, saying he abused her around 15 times and left her bleeding, bruised and once with a broken rib.
She said Guice publicly threatened her, citing his relationship with former LSU president F. King Alexander, which is not mentioned in the Husch Blackwell report, according to Lewis.
Lewis said when she eventually filed three separate police reports against Davis, she was “threatened with deportation by the LSU police chief,” which is also not mentioned in the report.
“It fills me with anger and sadness to think about al of the women who could have been spared the trauma that was inflicted by certain individuals, had LSU just done their job,” Owens shared on Twitter the day after the hearing.
Brennan flew in from California to speak at the committee meeting. She described her experience with Guice, which involved the former football player allegedly taking a nude photograph of her and then distributing it to the football team. Years later, Brennan requested police records from LSU and when they repeatedly denied her requests USA Today sued the University to acquire the documents. The result of the first trial which granted Brennan the documents and financial compensation are now being appealed by LSU.
Brennan said that the Husch Blackwell report was “268 pages of crap,” and that she felt more victimized by it than anything else thus far in her experience with LSU. She said the report misquoted many women and even misspelled some of their names.
“They cherry-picked what benefited them and omitted everything that damned them,” Brennan said. “This is bad, but the full story is way worse.”
“We tried our best to capture everything and to get multiple sides to this and lay it out as truthfully and honestly as we could,” Husch Blackwell partner Scott Schneider said in response to Brennan and Lewis’ critiques. “No punch was pulled.”
The legislators present, most of whom were women, expressed their outrage over the history of LSU’s treatment of victims. Several pointed out that the punishments Galligan announced the Board of Supervisors meeting were lacking in their severity.
“I’m dumbfounded,” Rep. Paula Davis said. “I’m sad. I’m disgusted. I’m so disappointed in LSU. My heart is beating really quickly and I’m shaking, because it’s just not enough.”
Rep. Aimee Adatto Freeman and Sen. Regina Barrow likened LSU’s systemic coverup of sexual assault to an “organized crime ring” and “the mafia.”
Interim President Thomas Galligan began his testimony by apologizing to survivors and thanking them for coming forward. He said the confusion about Title IX procedures within the university system was “absolutely rampant.”
Because of this, he repeatedly said he was “conflicted” about how harshly the university should punish someone for violating a policy they may not have known existed.
“Are you still conflicted?” Peterson questioned Galligan after the victims concluded their emotional testimonies. Galligan said he was never conflicted that LSU had failed survivors, but that he still has to process the testimonies heard in the meeting and determine what is fair to everyone involved.
“I’m not going to decide based on this afternoon to fire someone,” Galligan said. “If I were to do that, I would just fire myself.”
“Well, let’s talk about that,” Peterson said. “If you are still conflicted after all of this, maybe you might have the wrong gig.”
Galligan said there are “a lot of people” that he wishes he could fire, but said there are people who think it would be unfair to do so. Later, he included himself in the number of people who think it would be unfair.
Peterson said LSU’s continual treatment of victims was “embarrassing” and that “it’s made most of us cry already.”
At the end of the meeting, Barrow read a statement on behalf of the committee that expressed “deep and profound disappointment and dismay” over LSU’s refusal to satisfactorily punish those involved in covering up sexual misconduct.
“The committee hereby requests that the university reconsider the punishment meted out and take action to terminate the employees it holds responsible for mishandling the sexual reports of sexual abuse and to continue to identify and properly discipline any other culpable individuals,” the statement read.
