After five months of silence, Baylor University regents finally have revealed a few details — but far from a comprehensive report — behind Pepper Hamilton’s investigation into how the school handled sexual assault allegations. ADVERTISING After five months of silence,
After five months of silence, Baylor University regents finally have revealed a few details — but far from a comprehensive report — behind Pepper Hamilton’s investigation into how the school handled sexual assault allegations.
Regents provided The Wall Street Journal a few bombshells of information but left too many questions unanswered. It brought to mind that age-old magician’s misdirection trick of “don’t look over there; look over here.”
It’s no coincidence the interviews came just a few days before the school’s disgruntled former Title IX coordinator is set to once again appear on national television as part of a “60 Minutes” sports investigation.
A CBS News preview of the episode says it “found a culture where victims who came forward found themselves blamed for violating the university’s code of conduct, which prohibits drinking and premarital sex.”
No wonder Baylor recently hired G.F. Bunting, a California communications firm specializing in crisis management.
Now about that Wall Street Journal report: No reasonable person can look at the three statements the regents made and argue that former football coach Art Briles deserved to keep his job. The regents, only board chairman Ron Murff and J. Cary Gray were quoted, offered these details:
• Seventeen women reported domestic violence or sexual assaults by 19 football players, including four gang rapes, since 2011.
• Briles knew about at least one of the complaints but in that case didn’t alert police or the proper Baylor officials.
• Football players were involved in 10.4 percent of Title IX-reported incidents in the four-year period ending in 2014-15.
If true, these details reflect a horrific tragedy worse than what was previously revealed. And they begin to fill in the blanks for why Briles and former university president and chancellor Kenneth Starr needed to go.
But the board of regents needs to do far more to assure the public — most particularly the families who trust Baylor with their children’s safety — that those who remain in charge deserve their trust.
Carefully releasing selected facts falls far short of the justice the survivors of sexual assault deserve.
— The Dallas Morning News
