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Legislation to address LSU sexual misconduct scandal is close to becoming law; see next steps

The Advocate - 6/2/2021

Jun. 2—A package of four bills that grew out of the anger from years of LSU administrators largely ignoring young students who complained of sexual misconduct, cleared the Louisiana Senate and House Tuesday.

Senate President Page Cortez, R-Lafayette, agreed to have the full Senate vote on the two House-passed bills, and House Speaker Clay Schexnayder, R-Gonzales, agreed to have the House vote on the two Senate-passed measures at about the same time Monday. No lawmaker voted against any of the four bills that would close loopholes found in prior college campus safety laws, establish specific administrative reporting requirements, set salary levels for staff that universities would have to hire to investigate and follow through on complaints, and allow victims access to the reports.

Two of the instruments are soon heading to the governor's desk and two others will first need House approval of minor wording changes to make language consistent in all four bills, said state Sen. Beth Mizell, R-Franklinton, adding that some of the definitions and terminology are new.

Mizell described the bills as the final tools "in the tool chest." Lawmakers will watch how the new laws work and make tweaks in the future. "Always possible that we'll come back next year," Mizell said.

The legislation is the product of furious Senate Select Committee on Women and Children hearings to probe LSU's systemic failures in addressing sexual harassment and abuse. The panel heard testimony from victims and from LSU System President Tom Galligan. But efforts to bring other LSU executives, including football coach Ed Orgeron, was blocked when LSU lawyers said they couldn't testify because the university had been sued in court.

LSU hired independent law firm Husch Blackwell to review its handling of Title IX complaints after the media scrutinized the university's handling of sexual assault cases implicating two former football players. Former football coach Les Miles was pushed out of his coaching job at Kansas after the report detailed allegations of inappropriate behavior with students during his tenure at LSU, which Miles denies. Former LSU System President F. King Alexander resigned from his job leading Oregon State because of his role in the mishandling of sexual misconduct cases at LSU.

Mizell, a member of the committee, and Sen. Regina Barrow, the Baton Rouge Democrat who chaired the panel, each sponsored one of the four measures. Democratic New Orleans Rep. Aimee Adatto Freeman, who had sat in on the meetings, and Rep. Neil Riser, R-Columbia, sponsored the other two bills.

The four bills were approved Tuesday with little debate.

Senate Bill 230, by Mizell, called the "Campus Accountability and Safety Act," replaces the term "sexually-oriented offense" with "power-based violence" and requires campus police to provide offense data to the university. Additionally, the measure sets out the duties of higher education personnel and would give clear legal authority to fire or discipline employees for failing to report a sexually oriented criminal offense.

Senate Bill 232, by Barrow, would create the 15-member Louisiana Power-Based Violence Review Panel advisory panel to regularly evaluate laws and policies under the jurisdiction of the Board of Regents, which oversees all the public universities, colleges, and technical schools. The board would have to meet at least twice a year to evaluate policies and practices of higher education institutions and their management boards as well as to monitor power-based violence investigations and adjudications at the individual institutions.

House Bill 409, by Freeman, would legally define "power-based violence" to include domestic abuse, sexual assault, sexual harassment, and stalking. It includes specific reporting requirements and allows victims to obtain a copy of any report made pertaining to any incident involving the victim.

House Bill 394, by Riser, would require each post-secondary education institution to publish a quarterly security report including campus crime statistics.

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