Baylor reaches settlement in ’16 sex assault suit
Sep 18, 2023, 08:53 PM ET
Baylor University has settled a yearslong federal lawsuit brought by 15 women who declared they were sexually attacked at the country’s greatest Baptist school, ending the largest case brought in a comprehensive scandal that led to the ouster of university president Ken Starr and football coach Art Briles, and tainted the school’s reputation.Notification of the settlement
was filed in online court records Monday. The suit was very first filed in June 2016. Amongst the 15 complainants was a woman who alleged being assaulted by a football player in April 2014, a female who reported that two football players assaulted her in April 2016 and a female who stated a player on the rugby team– a club sport at Baylor– attacked her in fall 2012, according to the complaints.The lawsuit was one of several that were filed that alleged staff and administrators disregarded or suppressed reports from females who said they were attacked on or near campus.Among the early claims from some women in the lawsuit were that school officials sometimes used the school conduct code that prohibited alcohol, drugs and premarital sex to pressure ladies not to report being attacked. Another previously settled suit declared Baylor cultivated a” searching ground for sexual predators.”Editor’s Picks 2 Associated The regards to the settlement announced Monday were not disclosed.”We are deeply sorry for anybody connected with the Baylor community who has been damaged by sexual violence, “Baylor University stated in a statement.”While we can never eliminate the wicked acts of the past, we hope that this agreement will allow these 15 survivors to move forward in a supportive manner. “The scandal emerged in 2015 and 2016 with attack allegations made against football players. The school worked with Philadelphia law practice Pepper Hamilton to examine how it dealt with those attacks and others.The law office’s report determined that under the leadership of Starr, Baylor
did little to respond to allegations of sexual attack involving football players over several years. It likewise raised more comprehensive questions of how the school reacted to sexual assault claims throughout campus.Starr, the former prosecutor who led the investigation of the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky scandal, was removed as president and later left the university. He passed away in 2022. Also fired was Briles, who denied he covered up sexual violence in his program. Briles had led the program to a Big 12 championship, but he has actually not returned to significant college training; most recently, he was hired to coach in a brand-new spring professional league with 3 teams in the United States and 3 in Mexico.Baylor officials have said the school has actually made sweeping changes to how it resolves sexual attack claims and victims in action to the Pepper Hamilton report. That report has actually never been fully released publicly, despite efforts by the ladies taking legal action against the school to require it into the open.Chad Dunn, an attorney for the females who settled Monday, said the lawsuit and scandal went far beyond the issues in the football
program that captured early attention.”Their bravery and strength has produced legal precedents that empower others to gain remedy for the injuries inflicted by their universities, while likewise protecting safer education environments for future generations,”Dunn stated.”Baylor’s focus of limelights
on football tried to misdirect attention from institutional failures of the Baylor administration. Our customers would have none of that. Their decision brought the focus on authorities in the ivory tower and’the Baylor way.'”Info from ESPN’s Paula Lavigne and The Associated Press was utilized in this report.