Herb Vincent responds to GG's column

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I am writing in response to the column by Glenn Guilbeau about LSU's handling of the dismissal of (football starter) Tyrann Mathieu ("A look back at a crazy week that was at LSU," Aug. 20).

There is one indisputable fact. There are certain privacy issues that preclude a university from disclosing certain information the media and public may want to know about a student-athlete. If LSU is accused of putting the well being of the future of a student-athlete ahead of satisfying the media's thirst to know what he did wrong, what he will do next and when he will play again, then we are guilty.

At LSU, we believe there is certain information that should be discussed with a student-athlete and his or her family before discussing it in public. There is often information that can be shared publicly in due time, but LSU has been criticized for not sharing it soon enough. Certain reporters may be in a tooth-and-nail time crunch to beat another reporter to the news, but LSU is not.

The intent of the column in accusing LSU of being inconsistent seems to hang its hat on the word "dismissed" as being synonymous with "irrevocable", which according to the "American Heritage Dictionary" means "impossible to retract or revoke." Need we be reminded that the New York Yankees "dismissed" Billy Martin on five different occasions? Circumstances can change over time, and some of those circumstances involve matters of student privacy.

In fact, very few people inside or outside of LSU know the full details of what led to Mathieu's dismissal. Many pretend to know and some are trying to interpret what little details they have into definitive news stories. LSU didn't disclose the applicable policy that Mathieu violated, and reporters who pretend to understand the policy don't have the private information necessary to make the conclusions they are reporting.

Sometimes, when the well being of a young man or young woman is at stake, a little patience, a little restraint and a little more responsibility could serve a reporter — and in turn his readers — well.

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