Sexual Assaults in BR, Marijuana Law, AIDS Memorial Quilt

Support for Louisiana.

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We power life.

Additional support provided by the Fred Bea and Ruth B Ziegler Foundation and the Ziegler Art Museum located in Jennings City Hall.

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With support from viewers like you.

Sexual assault is the most under-reported crime.

Updates on the Maddie Brooks Story.

Lawmakers may not be as in the know about marijuana as some people in the community are.

Is marijuana legal in Louisiana?

Black people are underrepresented on their quilt as many miles as it is that very few of us.

The HIV AIDS quilt and what it means for the state.

A first for three public high schools in Louisiana.

They'll be testing out an African American studies AP course soon.

Yes, Animal High School, Frederick Douglass High School in New Orleans and Baton Rouge Magnet School will be offering these courses in the 2425 school year.

These schools are three of 60 nationwide piloting course.

These AP classes have been scrutinized lately nationally following a ban of them by Governor Ron DeSantis in Florida.

Yeah, we'll check it out.

And now to news making headlines across the state.

After nearly seven years of back and forth, a settlement has been reached in the Alton Sterling case.

The Baton Rouge Metro Council agreed to pay $1.7 million to protesters who argued that Baton Rouge police officers used excessive force and violated the civil rights of protesters following Stone's death.

The council voted 7 to 4 in favor of the settlement.

Some opponents of the decision say the matter should have been taken up by a jury or proponents say justice was finally served before any money is doled out to the 14 plaintiffs involved.

U.S. District Judge John de Gravell must approve the settlement.

The lawsuit against Hurricane Katrina and Rita victims has been dropped.

The state of Louisiana alleged that the homeowners misused grant money to make repairs when they were really meant for home elevation.

Defendants in the case insisted that they were told they could use the grants, which were around $30,000 for any hurricane relief repairs they needed.

The state tried to recoup that money by suing more than 3000 homeowners and a $103 million lawsuit.

U.S.

Congressman Troy Carter said Thursday in a press conference that the suit would be dropped.

The Louisiana Department of Transportation secretary is retiring after seven years of service.

Sean Wilson announced Thursday that he is stepping down from his role on March 4th.

In a statement Wilson released, he said, quote, I have new adventures and goals ahead.

Some believe this move is Wilson's way of moving toward the governor's race, though Wilson himself has not expressed any intent to enter.

During his tenure, the state invested $5.5 million in infrastructure projects.

He was also appointed the president of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, making him the first African American to do so.

LC M.S.

Health Systems in New Orleans and Willis Knighton, Health Systems in northwest Louisiana are the target of a class action lawsuit alleging illegal release of patient data.

Hermann Hermann and Katz filed the suit, claiming the hospital's use of computer code called Meta Pixel, which is an analytics tool used to track activity on websites.

The law group says the code, which was created by the same company that owns Facebook and Instagram, analyzed and shared data of hundreds of thousands of patients, including medical conditions, prescriptions and appointment details.

LC EMC Health released a statement saying they're taking the allegations with the utmost urgency.

And there's new info in the Madison Brooks case.

She's the LSU student, the 19 year old student investigators say was raped, then left by the road and hit and killed by a car.

A grand jury convened this week.

Plus, one of the suspect's accused now faces arrest for a third rape.

Healthy vs Laney miller, a junior and ella.

She's manship school of journalism is following the story and joins us now.

Lady, thank you for joining us.

So what's the latest with the response from LSU students?

Kara Last time I was here, we spoke about other students sharing their experiences of sexual assault.

Some were sharing their stories online anonymously.

Others gathering around campus to spread awareness.

I spoke with one woman who was willing to tell us her story.

We normally don't reveal the identity of sexual assault victims or record their testimonies.

But we received permission to share the next story.

Some of the information may be disturbing.

I think the biggest thing I struggled with afterwards was finding my security back and feeling comfortable.

That was the longest thing that it took for me to be comfortable with.

Again, was being in public spaces and just trying to feel safe in my own home.

That was something that had been taken away from me.

I didn't feel like my apartment and my home were safe anymore.

Personally speaking, I did not report to the broader group Baton Rouge Police, mostly because I did not feel comfortable having to having been assaulted and then having to turn around and run through those examinations with a stranger and having things like photos of very intimate areas taken and presented in court was not something I was comfortable with.

It was a very hard thing for me to admit to myself that I had been assaulted and that was one of the major issues on why I didn't report immediately after was I was terrified of the way the police would react and my university would react to allegations.

I think the biggest thing that I struggled with was not getting compassion from my university, I think was my biggest struggle specifically because I was assaulted by another student.

It was a lot of attitude of this is just, you know, he said she said, we don't have proof.

We can't do anything unless you have like documented witnesses and a situation where things were happening behind a closed door are not going to be taken seriously.

So difficult to hear.

Most people, men and women, struggle to even report sexual assault.

In fact, Laney also talked with many as a juror.

She's a nurse in charge of administering rape kits for East Baton Rouge Parish.

She explains why it's difficult for victims to come forward.

So, like we were talking about earlier, all the sexual assault cases in college students, the one specifically with Madison Brooks, kind of spotlighted a bigger problem and it shocked a lot of people.

But do you really think it's that shocking that something?

Of course not.

I mean, if you look at the stats nationally, some some organizations report one in four, some report one in six women are victims of sexual violence at some point in their life.

One in eight and one in ten men.

So, no, obviously not.

Not a shocking thing.

Right.

And if you look at our numbers just in East Baton Rouge Parish, really all of our region, they just keep growing every year.

Right.

With that growing number, we heard that one LSU student went to a local hospital to get a rape kit test done.

And she told us that the nurse said about seven other girls go in a week to get those examinations done.

Do you think that accurate?

So not necessarily seven college students.

We are at a point here in Region two, which is East Baton Rouge Parish and the surrounding parishes where we were.

We do about one a day.

So anywhere between 3 to 400 a year.

Now, it varies.

Sometimes it's for days, sometimes it's nine.

But we average about 350 exams a year.

So not those are not all college students, but but yeah, well that's a high number but is about one a day, One a day.

And honestly, it's still not high enough.

And I know that sounds strange for me to say, but we know that one in four women, one in six men are experiencing this.

So the numbers should be higher.

Right.

About how many of those that actually do come in, do you predict that they are actually college aged?

So I looked at the numbers from 2021 and we did 324 forensic medical exams, which is what we call them.

It's it's a rape kit, but it's it's a little bit more than that.

We know we take care of the whole patient.

But 71 of those were between 18 and 24.

Like, how many college students do you think don't actually go in to get out?

There's probably a great number.

Sexual assault is the most underreported crime, and there are so many reasons for that.

Right?

It's the culture that we live in.

It's that victim blaming mentality that we have where we talk about what a victim was wearing or the fact that they were drinking.

And so that really leads to underreporting.

Right.

Also, the fact that it's a shame based crime, it's it's very personal.

So it's it's very difficult for people to report.

And so I truly believe not a lot of people come forward that really should.

And you said a lot of people don't actually report specifically for those college students at the university.

Why wouldn't they report it for those reasons?

Just that it's it's a difficult.

First of all, a college student is navigating a lot of things, right.

Sometimes being away from home for the first time and having to take care of themselves or they have their parents to take care of them before.

So it's just a lot to navigate.

And then the whole peer pressure thing, you know, friend groups and it just makes it very difficult to come forward.

And one of the things I think it's important for people to know is there is a federal law that says and we do a lot of this, you can come in to the hospital and do what we call a non report, meaning I can take care of you, I can do a head to toe assessment, treat you and test you for sexually transmitted infections and collect evidence, and you do not have to talk to law enforcement provided you're 18 years or older.

You know, we're mandatory reporters.

So anybody that's 17, 364 and under, we have a duty to report.

But if you're 18 and above, we can collect that evidence so it's not lost and hold it for up to a year and really indefinitely.

Right.

Right.

And whenever you worked at the university, you had X amount of students come in a week.

How many of those do you think you should have seen a week?

Like how many students at the university didn't actually come in?

It's it's really hard to say a number, but I would venture to say many.

Mm hmm.

And we know recently another arrest was made for one of the defendants in Madison, Brooks's case, and it stemmed back to Tiger Land in the same bar.

Reggie's, you know, did.

You'll see a lot of survivors come in and their incidents started at Tiger Land as well.

I mean, sure, Sure we did.

Really?

Anywhere.

And I'm real hesitant to blame certain places strictly because we want to put the blame on the perpetrators.

Right.

We don't want to blame the alcohol.

We don't want blame the victims.

We don't want to blame the places because it's going to happen no matter what.

But sure, I mean, that was that there was a it's a common place for students to go, really.

Not just students at specific universities, but students from everywhere.

So, yeah, I mean, we did.

Is there any other vague piece of information that we should include or that I didn't ask you about?

So just I wanted to know everybody to know about the non reports, but also that even if you don't come in right away, we can collect evidence and give medical care for up to five days, 120 hours out.

And so we encourage people to come in.

There's no pressure.

Nobody's going to force you to report.

Nobody is going to force you to do anything you don't want to do.

We just want to be able to take care of these these victims.

And well, this is really shown what it's like from the victim's perspective.

I mean, what other obstacles do they have besides reporting when it comes to sexual assault their daily life?

I found by interviewing this one survivor that their daily life is kind of hindered.

She said she was uncomfortable at home even, and she said she was scared to go to school because her assaulter is also a student at the same university.

She even told me she's transferring schools and moving out of state.

So, you know, just daily life is a lot harder for these victims.

And then also go and get medical help after this happens.

She didn't go get medical or report anything until a year later because it was so hard to come to terms with that.

Even getting medical help is a really big deal and a lot of people don't even get that far yet.

You can see why be underreported.

Yeah, exactly.

Exactly.

But it's important to note for these survivors that getting medical attention is very important.

It's not supposed to be invasive or other it feels very invasive.

Once again.

But it's important for them to go get help and to know they don't have to report it to police or seek legal action.

Well, thank you so much, Laney, for coming in and giving those those reports and, of course, lawmakers legalized marijuana products that have the ability to create a high.

The goal was to only approve hemp products for adult use with little concentration of THC.

But instead, the legislature greenlit Delta eight and Delta nine strains.

The law is expected to be tweaked during the spring session.

Here to talk about this is Jim Inkster, a political analyst.

So first, I mean, how do you accidentally approve something like this?

That's a good question.

And I'm not sure we've gotten the full answer, but lawmakers may not be, as in the know about marijuana as some people in the community are.

We know we've had a revolution and now any street corner in any big city in Louisiana, we're going to have the familiar aroma of marijuana in the area.

And we're one of 938 states, 38 states that allows medicinal use.

Now, 19 states have recreational use.

We're not there yet, but lawmakers may have inadvertently got us where we're pretty close.

Right.

And I mean, so this means it's perfectly legal.

Anybody can go out and use this stuff.

Well, people who use these products tell me that eight milligrams will, quote, get you high.

And of course, some people do this legally and they get behind the wheel and things can happen when people are impaired.

But I think we're in one of the most conservative states with one of the most conservative legislatures.

I find it highly doubtful that this act will stand through the next session.

Right.

And that was going to take me to my next question.

How are they planning to tweak this so that, you know, people can't have access to these products?

Well, the genie is out of the bottle, literally, but I suspect they can make it where certain milligram levels are unacceptable and they probably will do that.

And then we'll see if people follow the law.

But right now, even if you get arrested for marijuana possession and using it illegally, if you don't have the medicinal yard pass, the penalty is really minimal.

It's like a traffic ticket.

And we know in Louisiana in the past, as of just a few years ago, there were 50 people serving life sentences for marijuana possession because it was a third offense.

And that has changed dramatically, some would say, for the better.

But maybe the legislature, in its wisdom, feels like they've gone a bit too far.

So let's backpedal a little bit.

How long has this been legalized?

Well, it's a couple of years now.

John Bel Edwards was the governor and of course, he is against legalizing it for recreational purposes.

I remember this was an issue in the 2015 governor's election and and then a few years, I believe, into his second term, this became the law of the state of Louisiana.

And now most of the nation, including most of the southern states, have followed suit.

So there's nothing unusual about it being legal for medicinal uses.

But it is unusual to have these high levels of eight milligrams that would make somebody high pretty quickly if they ate enough gummies.

And I think that we've had a sea change and people generally are okay with it.

It hasn't caused the world to stop the way some people said it would.

Right.

And I've seen a lot of people on the Internet have been complaining because they know that this law is going to go back to session and they know there are going to be tweaks that are happening.

Do you think that there is possibly any chance that some of it will all linger if they're active enough and have money to deliver to politicians?

Most polls show that most people in the country and in Louisiana, for example, they are against the salt weapons, but yet they're the law of the state and the nation because the people who treasure them, they're forceful in politics.

And it's a question whether this will have a groundswell and people will become more active.

And I don't know if that will be the case.

And now those who are naysayers would say they're too high.

They even know what they're doing.

But I think it's been proved that marijuana use is not necessarily any more dangerous than use of hard liquor.

So the world has not changed.

And now we have essentially something that was given to people that is taken away at any time that happens on any issue, there is pushback.

All right.

So, I mean, we don't really know what's going to happen.

We just have to wait till the spring session.

I think so.

All right.

Well, thank you so much for good to see you as always.

Sections of the AIDS quilt came to Louisiana this month at Southern and Dillard Universities.

It's part of the Change the Pattern campaign.

It's focusing on communities of color and also the LGBTIQ youth plus community.

Dr. Joyce Turner, killer, woman in red.

Yes, definitely.

And looking good.

We see you in purple and blue before.

But the red look looks wonderful.

You are you could have an S on the front of your dress because you are a super woman when it comes to AIDS awareness, activism.

And, you know, some people think it's gone.

True.

It's not.

It is not going in the numbers that in Louisiana are not great.

Again.

They're not with number four again.

That's right.

In black and brown.

78 and a half percent of new diagnoses.

Black and brown.

Correct.

And people of color, 60% under the age of 34.

Correct.

The quilt.

Yes.

One of the reasons it came to Louisiana was to remind people this is still happening.

Definitely.

And the other reason the quilt was brought to Baton Rouge as well came to Louisiana is because black people are underrepresented on that quilt as many miles as it is.

There are very few of us that have transitioned that are even recognized on the quilt.

So basically the quilt was brought here for us to actually make panels.

I just think it's critical that people stop being so complacent and feeling that, you know, they're safe.

You know, I did a video for black HIV National Black HIV Awareness Day.

And the video I did, I didn't put myself in it.

I just sit in my window and I videotape the cars going down the street.

And in that video I mentioned, I wonder how many people knew that it was National Black HIV Awareness Day?

How many people had actually gotten tested?

How many people took for granted they were safe?

How many knew that that knew their status?

And then I talked about how we don't have the conversation with people.

We have sex, you know, we'll meet somebody and they look good.

And oh, we find out.

We see him get out of a car.

Get out of a car.

And we talk about the profession and we just get so caught up after a few drinks or whatever, and we go and have sex, but we never talk about what the status is.

Of course, part of that is the medicines that have been misconception related and now exist that you can take a pill and it's supposed to take it away and it doesn't.

And I think it's critical that people understand that even if you take an injection of a prep, then one thing you need to do is take that shot every other month, depending on what that medicine is, what has been prescribed.

The other thing with that, with the prep, with the pill, Truvada, that is something that you have to maintain.

You don't just take it today because you're going out tonight.

That pill needs to be taken 28, 30 days consistently.

And then you need to at least, you know, because you don't know how is working in your system.

You need to check with your physician.

And that's something you do ongoing.

You don't just take it for 30 days and get off of it.

Right.

Right.

You have been in the streets.

You've been where it's happening.

You know, people need help.

And few people are willing to go out there and help them.

You have you have done that in all in all realms, right.

From church to the street.

You've been stopped.

Stripped.

Yeah.

Under the bridge.

I've gone even to truck stops and I've even, you know, work with the company.

You have to bring a will to Baton Rouge, what we call a condemnation tour.

And I even had the police called on me for giving out condoms, you know, and then to be accused of being a loose woman.

Okay.

Because I think we have to be honest about the fact that sex is what it is.

We we we talk about the number, the age limit where people actually get, you know, getting infected with HIV.

That's because we make sex dirty.

We don't talk about it.

We don't talk about we don't tell our kids that that which is forbidden is enticing.

We don't tell them the risk of having unprotected sex.

We just make them feel a shame about it so they don't talk to us about it.

But if we're more vocal and more open about that, this is a natural thing that happens between two people who love themselves, love each other.

Then it wouldn't be so much.

We would actually I think the numbers would come down if we had the kind of conversation that we need to have.

And that table, that conversation should be had at the school, at the kitchen table.

The problem is, is that we don't sit and talk at the kitchen table anymore.

Let's touch on where Louisiana is right now.

And number four, Number four in the nation, which is higher than it was when we had it was effort was at the top for a while.

And then in 2020, we were number 12.

Kovic recovered right at the Kovic hit.

Our numbers began to rise.

Of the cases in Louisiana, again, we're fourth now over 27% in the New Orleans metro area.

Correct.

And that's known as region One reason why.

Baton Rouge area is region two, correct?

That's Metro Baton Rouge, nearly 20% of the cases.

I'm not surprised that those numbers are higher in these two cities than the rest of the state.

I'm not surprised.

Oh, I'm disappointed.

Yeah, because it seems like whatever we are preaching or whatever we are teaching is falling upon deaf ears.

I just feel like when are people going to actually realize that people are still dealing with getting infected with HIV and they're still dying when they don't get into treatment?

That's what I'm hearing from you, because I see your you work so hard.

I do.

And the disappointment that no matter what you say, it doesn't seem to sink in.

No, it doesn't.

So you're outreach and you have a nonprofit aspirations, correct kinds of things.

But your outreach, how has that changed in the past five years?

I'm focused more on the faith based.

I'm focused more on research because so much so many times we are not exposed to clinical trials.

And I know that's what we need to be.

We don't need to just be introduced to medicines, but those medicines need to be tested on us so that, you know, we don't just get a blanket diagnosis without them.

Considering you know, who we are as a race of people as opposed to just generalizing the medicine that they're giving to us as a people.

Well, and on national black History Month, it's important to have this conversation and it's always great to have the conversation with you.

Thank you for having me.

I always appreciate you.

Thank you and everyone.

That's our show for this week.

Remember, you can watch anything, leave any time, wherever you are with our live PBS app, you can catch OPB News and Public Affairs shows as well as other Louisiana programs you've come to enjoy over the years.

And please like us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for everyone at Louisiana Public Broadcasting, I'm Andre Moore, and I'm kerosene cheer.

So next time, that's the state we're at.

Every day I go to work for Entergy.

I know customers are counting on me.

So Entergy is investing millions of dollars to keep the lights on and installing new technology to prevent outages before they happen.

Together, together.

Together.

We power life.

Additional support provided by the Fred Bea and Ruth B Ziegler Foundation and the Ziegler Art Museum located in Jennings City Hall.

The museum focuses on emerging Louisiana artists and is an historical and cultural center for Southwest Louisiana and the Foundation for Excellence in Louisiana Public Broadcasting.

With support from viewers like you.