La. Lawmakers Not Satisfied With Punishments for LSU Officials

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There was a smoke on the campus of Louisiana State University and with the release of the Husch Blackwell report detailing the mishandling of a number of sexual abuse cases, that smoke became a legitimate fire.

According to an article posted by the Louisiana Radio Network, that "fire" wasn't aptly treated by LSU administrators and they were extremely vocal about their discontent.

In the Husch Blackwell report, it was painfully obvious that LSU administrators Verge Ausberry and Miriam Segar hadn't handled the situation properly and because of their inactions, Ausberry was suspended for thirty days and Segar suspended for twenty one days.

Now, New Orleans Senator Karen Carter Peterson says that wasn't nearly enough of a punishment. In fact, she pointedly asked LSU officials how these individuals could be trusted once their suspensions were over and they returned 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.

Thomas Galligan, LSU interim president, rebutted with a valid point, stating that 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 asked, “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?”

Galligan told lawmakers the school is reforming the way it handles such cases and will do better in the future.

In response to that, Slidell Senator Sharon Hewitt added, “The fundamental problem is people do not believe we are committed to fixing this problem and why, because our actions don’t show that.”

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.