Today in Baton Rouge, the state Senate Select Committee on Women and Children meets to discuss LSU's mishandling of reports of sexual misconduct.
"You can't just thumb your nose at Title IX," said legal analyst and New Orleans attorney Tim Meche. Meche says the feds don't take allegations like these lightly.
"While perhaps no one will go to jail, there are a number of financial penalties," said Meche, who also said it is not just the Department of Education that LSU should be worried about.
"The NCAA is LSU's biggest worry," said Meche.
Penalties could include losing scholarships, bowl game bans, even retroactively forfeited wins.
"Similar to what happened against Penn State when Joe Paterno allegedly failed to exercise appropriate control of that program," he said.
LSU sent a letter to lawmakers this week informing them that persons associated with the university cannot answer questions under oath due to a pending lawsuit. Meche says he disagrees with that.
"LSU's a public institution, and they're subject to the rules of governmental bodies, such as the free speech clause, and they cannot forbid someone from speaking out freely," he said. "If they can talk to the media, they can do other things, as long as they're exercising their free speech right."
