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LTtxfan

LTtxfan 48688

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Specific accusations emerge against Les Miles for actions with female students at LSU

Former LSU and current Kansas football coach Les Miles is accused of texting female students, taking them to his condo alone, making them feel uncomfortable and, on at least one occasion, kissing a student, an internal investigative report released by LSU says, according to USA Today. The investigation did not find that Miles had sexual relationships with any of the women, but did define the behavior as “inappropriate,” according to USA Today.

The report states that Miles strongly denies kissing the woman mentioned in the investigation. According to USA Today, Miles believes he did, “nothing wrong and was simply mentoring young women at the university.” Furthermore, Miles is also accused by athletic department staff of saying that female student workers that helped pursue top recruits to choose LSU, “needed to be attractive, blonde and fit,” according to USA Today.

USA Today reports that LSU issued Miles a letter of reprimand and required him to sign forms that said he read and understood the school’s policies. He was ordered to stop hiring co-eds as babysitters, could no longer be alone with them and was forced to attend eight, one-hour sessions with an attorney, paid for himself, according to the report.

The news of Miles’ specific accusations comes just hours after it was reported that Miles had ended his legal bid to prevent the public release of the 2013 investigation that cited these accusations. Miles’ attorney explained the decision in a statement.

“Quite simply, Mr. Miles cannot defend himself against the inaccurate and unfair media attention that this matter has received during the past week without citing the report’s findings and conclusions,” wrote his attorney, Peter Ginsberg.

LSU still has objections to the release of the records, which must be resolved by the court.

“We appreciate that Coach Miles is dropping his objection to the records being released,” said Scott Sternberg, attorney for USA TODAY. “We feel optimistic that the judge will eventually rule that the records should be released to the public so the public can review these important documents.”

While at LSU from 2005 to 2016, Miles emerged as one of the most popular and successful coaches in college football, leading the Tigers to 114 wins and national championship game appearances in both 2007 and 2011 -- the former of which saw the Tigers win it all with a 38-24 win over Ohio State. Miles was previously the head coach at Oklahoma State from 2001-2004.

After sitting out of coaching for two years, it was announced in November 2018 that Miles would replace David Beaty as the head coach at Kansas starting in 2019. The Jayhawks went 3-9 in their first year under Miles' watch in 2019, a campaign that featured the program's first road win against a Power 5 opponent since 2008 when Kansas notched a 48-24 win vs. Boston College. The program took a step back in Year 2 under Miles, though, posting a winless record for the second time in six seasons.

 
 
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Geaux504N.O.
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Ever since that closetojumping crybaby jumped in about grammar yall all got riled up...this man threatened me with reactions Unlike that fool I fucks with UT based on the people I have met in rea

aggie08
aggie08

If a dude voluntarily chooses to coach at Baylor and Penn State in one career, you eventually have to start asking difficult questions.

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Blotto

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1 hour ago, Dennis Taylor said:

So LSU has been chock full of pieces of shit  most college athletic programs have been coddling student athletes that allow them to win and make truckloads of cash for a long time...

Color me not surprised at all

Lets be honest, these skeletons can be found in the closets of every P5 program to one degree or another. 

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956 Worldwide

956 Worldwide 33957

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46 minutes ago, Napoleon said:

So does this mean that the top high school players in Louisiana are going to be looking elsewhere for this year and possibly next?

LOL, I can see a small crack in the door but nothing serious. They might suffer a bit if Ed O actually got dismissed. “LSU is lax about sexual misconduct” is far down the list of concerns for high school football players.

One interesting tidbit in that report....one of the real problem players had his year at IMG for paid for by an LSU booster who was also his guardian. 

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Napoleon

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2 hours ago, 956 Worldwide said:

LOL, I can see a small crack in the door but nothing serious. They might suffer a bit if Ed O actually got dismissed. “LSU is lax about sexual misconduct” is far down the list of concerns for high school football players.

One interesting tidbit in that report....one of the real problem players had his year at IMG for paid for by an LSU booster who was also his guardian. 

I would think that your replacement parent paying for your high school is far down the list of concerns for the LSU program and potential bowl bans compared to lack of institutional control regarding Title IX violations.

If that booster had NOT been his guardian, then that would be one thing, but the fact that he was his guardian makes it a non-issue.

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3 minutes ago, Napoleon said:

I would think that your replacement parent paying for your high school is far down the list of concerns for the LSU program and potential bowl bans compared to lack of institutional control regarding Title IX violations.

If that booster had NOT been his guardian, then that would be one thing, but the fact that he was his guardian makes it a non-issue.

It makes it a non-issue but it is interesting when the person becomes your guardian and then immediately sends you away to a football factory. The report even suggests that the NCAA ought to take a look at it

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Just now, 956 Worldwide said:

It makes it a non-issue but it is interesting when the person becomes your guardian and then immediately sends you away to a football factory. The report even suggests that the NCAA ought to take a look at it

A friend's mom passed away in 6th grade and his mom had wanted the dad to move to the Park Cities (in Dallas) so that the kids would go to Highland Park and live close to their friends.

LOOPHOLE: Friend's of the family became the legal guardian of the son who would start his freshman year the following year so that he could go to Highland Park, but they didn't move for another year or two.

Obviously the guy became the legal guardian for a reason, but I would think that that investigation is going nowhere.

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1 hour ago, Napoleon said:

A friend's mom passed away in 6th grade and his mom had wanted the dad to move to the Park Cities (in Dallas) so that the kids would go to Highland Park and live close to their friends.

LOOPHOLE: Friend's of the family became the legal guardian of the son who would start his freshman year the following year so that he could go to Highland Park, but they didn't move for another year or two.

Obviously the guy became the legal guardian for a reason, but I would think that that investigation is going nowhere.

“I just cared about him so much.  I mean, I didn’t want him to live with me or his new family or anything. But I did want him to live far away, in Florida, where I could pay tens of thousands of dollars for him to receive the very best football coaching. And believe me, I was surprised as anyone when he chose to pursue his NCAA career at my alma mater.”

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LTtxfan

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Why did LSU allow Les Miles to carry on? 'We're protecting our brand'

Dan Wetzel  16 hrs ago

Fifty-two pages into a school-commissioned, outside law firm report about the pathetic antics of Les Miles, and how exactly LSU kept him as its head football coach in spite of them, comes a quote that should send chills through college athletics everywhere.

It’s from an unnamed “long-time football staff member” discussing how Miles was allowed to sexually harass female student workers, ignore the commands of his bosses, abuse his power as a prominent and winning coach and sexualize the office by making sure that the coeds who work there “have a certain look” … i.e. blonde and attractive.

All of it was shocking to the staff in real time. All of it was tolerated anyway.

“It just baffles me, though, that for so long, this went on and that kinda became the normal, right?” the staffer said, clearly trying to come to grips with their role in it.

“And you just don’t talk about it and you don’t say anything, you just kinda go, ‘Cuz we’re protecting LSU, we’re protecting our brand, we’re protecting our head coach, we’re protecting this, we love LSU so we’re gonna be loyal to LSU so we’re gonna do what we can to help it and try to fix it,’ ” the staffer said. "... I always felt like we always had to be protective, you know? You want to protect LSU.”

That the attitude inside LSU was to dismiss red flags that ranged from concerning to egregious in an effort to “protect” the head coach and the football program is terrifying.

That it still occurred after so many other massive, high-profile sexual assault scandals in athletics followed this precise blueprint should serve as a fire alarm for all of college sports. Essentially, nothing has changed.

If everyone is lucky, Miles’ behavior never went beyond propositioning students and hiring based on looks. That was bad enough. Incredibly it didn’t get him fired by LSU in 2013 (despite his athletic director recommending it). It did cause him to be forced out Tuesday at Kansas, where he was head coach since the 2019 season.

The only thing saving this from being a far more horrific tragedy is that Miles apparently didn’t take it further. What LSU was willing to allow him to do though — operate beyond the scope of acceptable behavior — created an environment that would have made it easy to take further, either by him or any other employee sensing a lax setting.

“Any time protecting the brand, program or coach is the main focus, instead of transparency and accountability, there is a risk that a culture of abuse will flourish and other bad behavior will be ignored,” Angie Povilaitis told Yahoo Sports on Wednesday.

Povilaitis is the former assistant attorney general of Michigan who led the investigation and 2018 prosecution of gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar, who exploited just such a situation to sexually assault hundreds of girls.

“We have seen it occur in many other high-profile cases, including USA Gymnastics with Larry Nassar and Penn State with Jerry Sandusky,” Povilaitis said.

Much of the LSU report focused on the procedures in place for the reporting and investigation of these kinds of incidents (the school is strong in some ways but needs improvement in others).

None of that matters, though, if there is a culture of silence, or at least tolerance of horrid behavior. The extreme abuser is rarely caught red-handed. They simply thrive amidst doubts and excuses.

© Provided by Yahoo! Sports Les Miles was celebrated at LSU long after it had come to the university's attention that he'd engaged in inappropriate behavior. (Chris Graythen/Getty Images)

It’s how a concern about, say, Nassar performing “medical treatments” on gymnasts alone in hotel rooms goes from an argument for convenience to the realization he seized the opportunity to systematically rape them.

And how a 60-year-old coach repeatedly propositioning college students, even after being told to stop, becomes … well, who knows.

“To think that that was almost normal for us and because we had been involved in that so long, until you step back and look at it and go, ‘My God, what did we—what were we doing, you know?’ ” the football staffer said. “... But it was always, like, nobody ever really wanted to ... rock the boat.”

One person who did was Sharon Lewis, LSU’s Associate AD/Football Recruiting and Alumni Relations. Lewis relayed numerous complaints concerning Miles. The investigations “went nowhere” according to Lewis, who stated that Miles and other staffers became “hostile” to her and eventually suffered a “mental breakdown” due to the lack of support. Others noticed.

“Poor Sharon,” the staffer said. “I mean, like I said, she had most of the brunt of it because she was over the girls ... .We were so beat down and caught up in that mess, we didn’t realize how bad we were, you know? That’s what upsets me.”

It should upset everyone. This was a perfect culture for things to turn into a nightmare. We’ve seen it. Repeatedly.

And this isn’t just LSU. It would be naive to conclude this is the only place where such thinking still exists. The power dynamic, the win-at-all-costs mentality, the lack of oversight … it can happen anywhere. It probably is.

“I felt like maybe if the University had done more when the first child had happened, maybe that would have helped clean up a lot of other stuff that maybe wouldn’t have happened further down the line with not just him, with even players and anything like that,” the football staffer said. “Because sometimes if people see somebody getting in trouble ... they’re not as apt to go, ‘Well, I can keep doing that because nobody gets in trouble around here, even the head coach didn’t get in trouble for doing it.’ ”

Les Miles finally got in trouble, fired eight years and two schools too late. Even with the athletic director calling for his dismissal in 2013, he wasn’t dumped by LSU until he stopped winning enough games in 2016. If he’d still been beating Alabama, he’d probably still be there.

The story isn’t just about Les Miles and LSU though. This is a warning flare for everyone, everywhere.

No matter how many of these abusive coach and doctor horror stories emerge, some of the people most capable of stopping it early are, for whatever reason, still focused on protecting brands, not victims.

Changing that should be everyone’s primary focus.

This time it appears it was just Les Miles being a loser and a creep.

This time

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USA TODAY

LSU administrator gave rapists, stalkers and other Title IX violators slaps on the wrist

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2021/03/17/lsu-rapists-and-stalkers-got-some-lowest-possible-sanctions/4635534001/ 

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For years, the LSU administrator in charge of doling out punishments to rapists, stalkers and abusers regularly chose to issue the lowest possible sanctions, regardless of the severity of the alleged acts, a USA TODAY investigation found.

In more than half the Title IX cases referred to him for punishment over the past four school years, Associate Dean of Students and Director of Student Advocacy and Accountability Jonathan Sanders imposed sanctions that allowed guilty students to continue their coursework uninterrupted, instead of opting for more severe penalties, such as suspension or expulsion. During that time, Sanders expelled just one student.

On top of this lenient approach, several women told USA TODAY that Sanders added to their trauma by disciplining them for minor, unrelated infractions or questioning them in ways that cast doubt on stories found to be credible by Title IX investigators. 

One female student told USA TODAY that Sanders questioned her about what clothes she wore the night a male student raped her while she was unconscious. She reiterated her claims to investigators hired by Louisiana State University to review its handling of abuse cases.

Two other female students said Sanders failed to contact witnesses in their cases against a fraternity member they reported for sexual assault in 2019.

In 2018, Sanders was one of the officials who led the university’s response to allegations that football player Drake Davis beat tennis player Jade Lewis. During an investigation into one alleged beating, staff members reported finding a candle in Lewis’ dorm room, a violation of housing rules. The officials wasted no time citing Lewis for the candle, even as the case against her attacker dragged on for several more months. Davis pleaded guilty in court to two assaults.

Sanders declined to be interviewed for this story. Through an LSU spokesman, Sanders defended his record on sanctions for sexual offenders, saying the punishments he issued were harsher than those of his predecessor. He denied asking a student what she was wearing.

In an email, Sanders disputed several aspects of a report released two weeks ago by the Husch Blackwell law firm that criticized his handling of specific cases. Sanders said the firm made errors in some cases or took his words out of context. 

LSU hired Husch Blackwell in November to investigate the school's handling of sexual misconduct allegations in response to reporting by USA TODAY.

LSU did not discipline Sanders after the Husch Blackwell report. Only two athletic department administrators – Executive Deputy Athletic Director Verge Ausberry and Senior Associate Athletic Director Miriam Segar – have faced accountability from LSU for contributing to a systemic failure to appropriately respond to dating violence and sexual assaults. They were suspended without pay for 30 and 21 days, respectively.

LSU Interim President Tom Galligan told USA TODAY on March 10 he had “no idea” why LSU had taken a lenient approach to disciplining sexual offenders, but he expects the school to issue more expulsions and suspensions. 

When asked whether Sanders would continue to head LSU’s accountability office, Galligan said he was not sure.

“I would have to definitely – we will review that,” Galligan said. “I would say, though, that everyone is existing in a culture where signals from the top are not – and maybe not the president, I think the president did make statements about Title IX enforcement – but other messages from the top in various departments were not clear.

“There was not a culture of enforcement and accountability.”

‘Worthless’ punishments

From the 2016-2017 school year through the 2019-2020 school year – while Sanders was in charge of issuing sanctions in Title IX cases – LSU found 46 students responsible for Title IX offenses, data obtained from LSU by USA TODAY shows. 

Title IX offenses include rape, sexual assault, sexual harassment, dating and domestic violence and stalking. 

Out of 46 students found responsible, LSU expelled just one. It suspended 18 and gave lesser sanctions to 27. 

Of the 27 issued lesser sanctions, 14 students received probation, 11 received deferred suspensions and two received warnings. 

Under LSU policy, deferred suspensions, probation and warnings do not necessitate removal from classes or from campus. Deferred suspensions result in actual suspensions only if the student is found responsible for a subsequent violation.

A USA TODAY review of student disciplinary records from comparably sized institutions, obtained via public records requests, shows LSU’s punishments to sexual offenders were far more lenient.

From 2014 through mid-2019, Ohio State expelled 28 students – about 60% of those found responsible for sexual offenses in that time. Michigan State found 37 students responsible and expelled 16, or 43%. The University of Central Florida found 34 responsible and expelled 12, or 35%.

At Ohio State, 24% of students disciplined for sexual offenses received sanctions less severe than a suspension. It was 19% at Michigan State and 9% at UCF. 

By comparison, 59% of LSU students disciplined for Title IX offenses received lesser sanctions while Sanders was in charge of their punishments.

 In other words, LSU allowed three of every five students found responsible for a Title IX offense to continue their coursework without interruption.

LSU deferred the suspension of one student found responsible for sexual misconduct, sexual harassment and unauthorized surveillance, the data shows. The university meted out the same punishment to another student found responsible for stalking, harassment and endangerment. One was assigned a course on ethics and decision making, and both were required to attend anger management class.

The data does not include the names of the disciplined students, which LSU refused to release, or narratives of the incidents. “Sexual misconduct” encompasses rape, sexual assault, sexual exploitation and other nonconsensual sexual offenses. 

The only student expelled under Sanders’ purview was Davis, who was found responsible for endangerment, disorderly conduct and residential life guest visitation violations. Sanders expelled him in July 2019 – 10 months after he’d withdrawn from the school. By then, Davis had already been criminally convicted.

Sanders told Husch Blackwell that his sanctions were determined by an “Outcomes Guide,” which outlines a range of potential punishments for each type of offense. LSU’s menu of sanctions was unlike those of other schools, Husch Blackwell noted in its report. 

Instead of looking at the severity of the offense, the victim’s wishes and whether the student found responsible admitted fault, LSU’s sanctions were based on the number of times the student had been found responsible for the same offense. 

For first violations of the majority of offenses – including sexual misconduct, sexual harassment and stalking – the minimum sanction was probation or a deferred suspension, according to LSU’s 2020-21 Outcomes Guide. Suspensions and expulsions were permitted for first-time offenders, but USA TODAY’s review found that most of the time, Sanders elected probation and deferred suspensions.

That runs counter to the university’s website, which says probation is typically reserved for first-time offenses that are “not serious in nature.” 

In at least one case, Sanders chose a punishment lighter than what the university’s guide prescribed. His office found a fraternity member had sexually assaulted two students in separate incidents. Sanders issued a deferred suspension, allowing him to stay in school, and ordered him to attend an anger management class. 

Caroline Schroeder, one of the two students who reported the fraternity member, called the punishment “worthless,” especially for someone found to have sexually assaulted two women.

“At that point, it's a clear pattern. It's likely to happen again,” Schroeder told USA TODAY. “And if the whole point of the process is to make sure that these things don't keep happening, you’d think you'd want to be pretty serious with that first one.”

According to university spokesman Jim Sabourin, Sanders said he was not aware of the Outcomes Guide’s origin, but it dates at least as far back as 2011, before he began as director of student accountability. 

Sanders began his LSU career as assistant director of Greek Life in 2006, his LinkedIn profile shows. He was promoted to associate director of Greek Life in 2009, then to assistant dean in 2013. He remained the Greek Life associate director until his transition to accountability director in September 2016. 

Until August, LSU handled sexual misconduct and gendered violence complaints in a complex, multistep process, far more complicated than most other schools. 

First, a Title IX investigator probed the allegations and determined whether the accused student was responsible. The findings could be appealed to the Title IX coordinator. The case was then forwarded to Sanders’ office for additional investigation and sanctions. After that, the student could request a rehearing of the case by a panel of faculty and students. Even still, the hearing panel results could be appealed and overturned by high-level administrators, including the dean of students or even the president.

“This is a byzantine practice which at best confused student participants and at worst pointlessly prolonged case resolution and potentially re-traumatized the parties,” Husch Blackwell wrote in its report to the university. “It also required additional institutional resources for an area that was already understaffed.” 

LSU updated its sexual misconduct policies last year in response to new Title IX regulations issued by the Trump administration. Sanctions are determined by a university hearing panel, instead of Sanders’ office. 

Sanders’ office is still tasked with issuing discipline in cases of non-gender-based offenses, including physical abuse and hazing. 

Candle and wine violations

Husch Blackwell saved some of its harshest criticism for the way Sanders handled reports that Davis physically abused his then-girlfriend, Lewis. 

Although Davis admitted in a June 2018 interview with LSU’s Title IX investigator that he had “punched (Lewis) in the stomach” during an argument, Sanders chose not to suspend Davis while the university investigated, nor did he issue a no-contact or other protective order to separate them. Husch Blackwell described this approach as “way too passive.”

Asked by Husch Blackwell about this decision, Sanders said he and other officials were reluctant to issue a no-contact order because they knew Lewis would violate it, and they “didn’t want to have to charge her.” But as the law firm noted, LSU charged Lewis with other offenses, which could be construed as retaliatory. 

For instance, within two days of discovering a candle in Lewis’ apartment during an investigation into alleged dating violence, LSU found her responsible for violating the residence life campus handbook. By contrast, the school waited nearly three months to charge Davis with conduct code violations for beating her on multiple occasions.

Sanders told Husch Blackwell that issuing Lewis candle-related charges was a way of trying “to engage” with her, “to try and address the behavior with Drake.” Husch Blackwell called this decision “misguided.” It noted that LSU had an amnesty policy that should have been invoked but wasn’t. The law firm said LSU appears to have made no other interventions to ensure Lewis’ safety.

“Disciplining a victim of dating violence for having a candle in her room – which was discovered through an investigation into a report of dating violence – sends a troubling message to victims of abuse and misconduct which does not encourage reporting to the University,” Husch Blackwell noted.

Two months after the candle incident, LSU held Lewis responsible for having a bottle of wine in her campus apartment, another residence hall violation. It informed her of this the same day she reported numerous acts of dating violence by Davis to campus police.

“We decided to charge Drake and Jade and move forward with possible Code violations under the Code in hopes that one of them would be truthful about what occurred during the evening in question,” Sanders said in his statement to USA TODAY. “This decision was made in consultation with Dean of Student (Deputy Title IX Coordinator), General Counsel (Tom Skinner), and (Title IX Coordinator) Jennie Stewart.”

Fraternity member

The case against the fraternity member seemed straightforward. 

He had been found responsible by LSU’s Title IX office for sexually assaulting two female students on a bus ride back from a fraternity party in October 2016. Both reported that he ripped open or put his hands up their shirts and touched them without their consent. The verdict was upheld at every stage of the appeals process. 

Schroeder and Elisabeth Andries said that when they met with Sanders for what they thought was to be a discussion about their abuser’s punishment, Sanders peppered them with questions, as if he was investigating the assaults anew. Even though the Title IX office had already made a determination in their cases and denied the fraternity member's first appeal. 

“He ... makes you go through the whole report again and tries to find ... inaccuracies or something. I don’t know what the point of him was,” Andries told Husch Blackwell. “He asked me if I was on other drugs or on anything else other than alcohol? And I looked at him and I was like, ‘Would it have mattered at this point?’ And he was just like, ‘Well, I find it hard to believe that [this happened while] you were on a public bus with people.’ 

“And I was like, ‘Well, me too.’”

Andries told Sanders she knew of a third woman who said she, too, had been sexually assaulted by the fraternity member. She and Schroeder urged Sanders to call the fraternity president at the time they were assaulted. 

Sanders contacted the wrong fraternity president, and he never reached out to the third woman, Andries told USA TODAY and Husch Blackwell, which, if true, violates federal and LSU Title IX policies.

Sanders disputed not reaching out to the woman, saying that LSU’s Title IX investigator, Jeffrey Scott, contacted her, but she declined to make a statement.

Sanders issued sanctions against the fraternity member: a meeting on anger management and healthy relationships, a course on ethics and decision-making and a deferred suspension for four semesters.

Husch Blackwell noted that, based on LSU’s Outcomes Guide, Sanders should have at least suspended, if not expelled, the fraternity member because he’d been found responsible for two sexual misconduct violations. 

Both the fraternity member and Schroeder appealed the decision, Schroeder objecting to the light sanctions. Andries was so fed up with the process, she said, she opted not to pursue it further. 

“It was already three appeals deep,” Andries said. “I don’t know where this ends.” 

In September 2019, a hearing panel voted to increase the fraternity member’s punishment, suspending him for two semesters and banning him from campus. His final appeal was denied in October 2019 – nearly seven months after the Title IX investigation started.

Schroeder told USA TODAY she believes LSU’s Title IX process intentionally wears victims down until they give up. 

“I think it’s all designed so that everybody just gives up and goes home,” she said.

‘What I was wearing’

Andries’ and Schroeder’s experiences echo that of another woman, Sidney, who reported being raped by her friend, a male student, in 2018. 

Sidney agreed to use her first name only for this story. She spoke to USA TODAY last year and shared documents from her Title IX case. She also spoke to Husch Blackwell, though investigators did not analyze the handling of her case in their report.

Sidney said that after a night of drinking in 2018, she slept over at the friend’s house and woke up in the middle of the night to him raping her. When she reported the assault to LSU, she brought evidence, she said: She had a rape kit examination done, and she shared with LSU screenshots of a text exchange after the incident, in which she told the friend she was too drunk to have sex, and he laughingly apologized.

Two months after the incident, the Title IX investigator found the male student responsible for sexual misconduct. His first appeal was denied, and the case was forwarded to Sanders to impose sanctions. 

Nearly a month later, Sidney got an email from Sanders, asking if she could meet. He pushed the date back multiple times after that for several weeks.

“He obviously didn’t really care about trying to meet with me,” Sidney said. “It was more like, ‘This is something I have to do, but I’m just going to wait until it’s convenient for me to do it.’”

When they finally did meet, Sidney said Sanders tried to poke holes in her story, even though the Title IX office had already reached a decision in her case twice. 

“His tone of voice and the questions he asked me were basically like, ‘So this is your fault that this happened,’” Sidney said. “He asked a lot of questions like what I was wearing, and how much I’d had to drink, and that kind of thing. The kinds of questions that are like – I guess it’s maybe relevant, but like not really. Like what I was wearing, that doesn’t matter.”

Sanders denied asking Sidney what she was wearing.

Sanders issued the male student a one-year suspension, but he appealed to a university hearing panel. Because of the delays and the school calendar, the panel’s decision came with just one week left of school. 

Sidney was stunned when the panel overturned the suspension, allowing the student to complete the semester, his last at the school. Sidney said a member of the panel told her it was best to just “let him graduate and then not see him again.” 

“I said, ‘That’s not the point,’” Sidney said. “The point is he did this and nothing happened.” 

 

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