Lousiana State University students have said the university president’s statement following the alleged rape and death of Madison Brooks “falls short of” addressing the issue of sexual assault and consent.
In a statement published on Monday, LSU’s Feminists in Action decried president William F Tate’s response to the alleged sexual assault that 19-year-old Brooks suffered before being dropped off by the suspects along a roadway and fatally hit by a car on 15 January.
The group demanded that Mr Tate use his “energy to fix the sexual violence our community faces instead of using alcohol as a scapegoat.” Mr Tate had previously said that the university plans to investigate why the establishment where 19-year-old Brooks met the men accused of raping her was serving alcohol to minors.
“While students are grieving the loss of our peer and fearing for our safety and well-being, your administration directs its attention to the underage consumption of alcohol. This response is inexcusable,” the group said.
The statement added: “These four individuals were arrested for ‘third-degree rape’ and ‘principle to rape’; not underage drinking nor driving under the influence.”
The East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office revealed on Monday that a severely intoxicated Brooks was dropped off along a road in a neighbourhood near Pelican Lakes Parkway after she was allegedly raped. An autopsy revealed that her blood alcohol level was four times the legal limit at the time of her death.
Kaivon Deondre Washington, 18, and a 17-year-old male who has not been named due to his age have been charged with third-degree rape. Mr Washington’s uncle Everette Lee, 28, and Casen Carver, 18, are charged with principal to rape — they have since been released on bond, local news station WBRZ reported.
The LSU’s Feminists in Action accused Mr Tate’s email of “victim-blaming” and demanded that the university renewed a “contract with sexual trauma awareness and response and release an accessible list of confidential registered trauma responders and organizations made by LSU.”
The group said that working with students to establish a concrete plan was pivotal to eradicating “rape culture” at the university.
Former LSU College Democrats president Cooper Ferguson, who wrote the letter, lambasted the school’s response to The Reveille.
“Tate has completely failed to meet the moment. Instead of addressing the issue of sexual violence and greater violence in the Baton Rouge community, he instead blames the victim in this incident and says that Tigerland and the victim are at blame for alcohol consumption,” the international trade and finance junior said. “Tigerland does have many faults, but the situation is completely separate from that incident.”
He added that he’s “terrified for the safety of my peers” and for himself.
“I wish I could be angry, but anger doesn’t convey the feeling of fear that’s emanating around campus,” he said.
Morgan Lamandre, the president of Baton Rouge-based nonprofit Sexual Trauma Awareness and Response which helped LSU reorganize the Title IX department after the school was reported to have mishandled sexual misconduct complaints in 2020, echoed Ferguson’s complaints to the The Reveille.
“People want to have a reason or somebody to blame for sexual assault when the truth is, it’s just the rapist…You could be in all those situations, but unless you encounter a rapist, you’re not going to be raped,” she said.
Brooks, an Alpha Phi sorority sister, spent the night of 14 January at Reggie’s Bar and met her four alleged attackers there.
Footage from the bar shows Brooks falling over several times, stumbling and struggling to stand in front of at least one of the suspects before they left the bar together, according to an arrest warrant. Investigators said Brooks was then sexually assaulted by the four men in a car before they dropped her off.
At a bond hearing on Tuesday, 19th Judicial District Judge Brad Myers said that he had watched a video filmed by one of the four suspects inside the car with Brooks. The judge said that the video shows the suspects “callously” laughing at Brooks as she slurred her words, reported local outlet WAFB.
The judge concluded that – based on the video, footage from Reggie’s bar and statements made by Mr Carver to investigators – it was clear that a crime had occurred that night.
“The evidence to me is clear,” he said.
The suspects had hoped that the footage shot inside the car would prove their innocence with an attorney for Mr Washington and the 17-year-old claiming hours earlier that it shows Brooks consented to having sex with the suspects.
Attorney Ron Haley told KSLA ahead of the court appearance that the video shows Brooks “was intoxicated” but not to point that she could not “lawfully give consent or answer questions” during sex with the suspects.
He described what happened to the LSU student as “a tragedy” but “definitely not a crime”.
Mr Haley also said that Brooks allegedly told the suspects that she was going to order an Uber after an argument unfolded.
“Based on a disagreement, she got out of the vehicle. She indicated she was getting an Uber,” Mr Haley alleged. “I want the public to know, these young men or really the driver of the vehicle and the young men that were in there, did not put her off on the side of the road.”
Now, prosecutors in the case have also vowed to upgrade the charges against the alleged attackers. Prosecutor Stuart Theriot said at the hearing that the state would seek upgraded charges of first-degree rape and planned to convene a grand jury in the case.
On Tuesday, Reggie’s Bar also had its liquor licence suspended for allegedly serving alcohol to the victim and three of her attackers, who were underage.
Brooks’ blood alcohol level was four times the legal limit at the time of her death.
Kris Perret, an attorney for Reggie’s Bar, said in a statement to NOLA.com that the owner “has fully cooperated with the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office, Louisiana State Police and the East Baton Rouge ABC office since their first requests for assistance in their ongoing investigations and will continue to do so”.
