Thread by @JSODonoghue

In light of the @USATODAY reporting on sexual misconduct/domestic violence allegations within LSU's football team, I decided to ask what type of preventative training was being done in LSU athletics. Here are some of the highlights of what I found... lailluminator.com/2021/02/08/lsu…

From 2016-2020, the bulk of LSU Athletics' sexual misconduct prevention training was provided PFA Consulting, a group owned by former Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe. During this same time, nine members of the football team were accused of sexual misconduct/domestic violence.

LSU's athletic department, with funding provided by Tiger Athletic Foundation, spent at least $128k on sexual misconduct training from 2016-2020 -- again at a time when many football players were being accused of sexual violence/domestic abuse.

It's not just that 9 LSU football players were accused of sexual violence/abuse. At least five times, the alleged victims of these players were women who worked in the athletic department or athletes. That part of the reason I want interested in their prevention efforts.

The @NCAA does recommend specific programs for sexual violence prevention training its "tool kit" for college coaches and sports administrators, but the training used by LSU isn't one of those recommended.

PFA Consulting -- the program LSU does use -- comes to Baton Rouge three times per year to hold sessions with LSU coaches, staff and athletes. It goes over the university resources that athletes could use if they wanted to report misconduct.

Interestingly, the program requires that people go through sexual violence prevention training separate from those who supervise them. So for example, coaches are allowed to be in sessions with their teams. That supposed to make it more comfortable for people to open up.

Even though allegations of sexual misconduct were piling up in the athletics department, the company conducting the the department's sexual misconduct prevention training - PFA consulting -- was rehired three times.

LSU said PFA should continue to be paid to provide sexual misconduct training because the athletic department received a “low number of HR complaints”. This was during years where football players were accused of abusing other athletes/women working in the department.

PFA is not the only kind of sexual misconduct prevention program provided by LSU Athletics. The department also sent me a list of speakers that it had address the football team. At least four of the 15 would have talked about sexual misconduct/violence against women.

Among those speakers who addressed the LSU football team is Lisa Friel, who oversees sexual misconduct investigations for the @NFL. (She is also a former NYC prosecutor who dealt with sex crimes.)

Other speakers brought in to talk to the LSU football team include Baton Rouge's police chief, sheriff and district attorney. One former BR police chief who owns a private firm that does motivational speaking was also on the list.

At the recommendation of PFA (the consultant), LSU Athletics also formed an internal "grievance team" in 2017 to handle misconduct in the athletic department. The department says the team is not supposed to be a substitute for the Title IX office or LSU police.

But among the members of the LSU grievance team is Verge Ausberry, the athletic official who declined to report a football player when the player admitted to hitting a girlfriend via a text message. All the grievance team members are athletics administrators.