Former LSU football coach Les Miles was banned from being alone with female students following the 2013 sexual harassment investigation, according to the original internal report released by LSU on Thursday.
The 2013 report, which USA Today summarized, showed that Miles, who is now the University of Kansas football coach, was accused of texting female student workers on a burner phone, driving them alone to his condo and kissing a student on at least one occasion. The student told investigators that Miles reportedly suggested prior to kissing her, “that they go to a hotel together and mentioned his condo as another meeting place. He also complimented her on her appearance and said he was attracted to her.”
LSU hired an outside law firm to conduct the investigation in 2013, finding that he did not have any sexual relationships with the women. However, the firm did state that the behavior was inappropriate. According to the report, Miles denied the kissing allegations.
The report also showed that athletic department staff said Miles, who was directly involved with hiring student employees, “made it clear that he wanted these employees to have a certain ‘look’ (attractive, blond, fit).” Employees at the time that did not fit the description were to be given fewer hours or fired, according to the report.
As a result, LSU punished Miles by having him sign forms that showed he understood the school’s policies and issued a letter of reprimand. The school then prohibited him from hiring football operations or athletic department student employees and ordered him not to be alone with said employees. Additionally, Miles was required to attend eight, one-hour sessions with an attorney, which he had to pay for himself.
LSU also said that if he repeated the behavior, Miles would be fired.
The allegations came to light in January when USA TODAY sued for the records. LSU initially refused to release the records, and Miles stated that if they were made public, it would ruin his reputation. Miles ended up dropping his bid to keep them sealed, and his lawyer released a statement stating that this report was “the only way to clarify the misinformation and to halt the unsubstantiated attacks on Coach Miles.”
This is only the tip of the iceberg for LSU’s sexual misconduct problems. The school hired outside law firm Husch Blackwell in November to audit how it handled dozens of cases dating back to 2016. The Husch Blackwell report is slated to be released on Friday, and will reportedly shed light on more of Miles’s conduct while at LSU.
This new investigation is focusing on all departments at the school; however, there have been multiple high-profile allegations in recent years involving the LSU football team.
Jade Lewis, a former LSU women’s tennis player, came forward publicly for the first time in November and spoke about how the school handled multiple reports of her being abused by a Tigers football player for more than a year. She said that LSU women’s tennis co–head coach Julia Sell failed to report Lewis’s account of physical abuse by then Tigers wide receiver Drake Davis.
