Baylor University is in hot water after allegedly shielding football players accused of sexual assault and domestic violence.
An ESPN “Outside the Lines” report released Wednesday reveals a growing number of assault allegations against football players — and further suggests coaches and various Baylor officials knew about the incidents and failed to discipline the players involved.
Breaking: Police records obtained by OTL detail several more violence allegations against Baylor football players: https://t.co/h1cP4Sd3BR
— Outside the Lines (@OTLonESPN) May 18, 2016
The report, which contains information obtained from Waco police documents, shows a pattern of Baylor and police seemingly prioritizing protecting the football team over investigating reports of assault. For example, in a 2011 incident involving three football players charged with assaulting a fellow student, an investigating Waco police officer requested “the case be pulled from the computer system so that only persons who had a reason to inquire about the report would be able to access it.”
And this isn’t the first report released by ESPN involving Baylor’s treatment of assault cases.
Back in January, “OTL” investigated Baylor’s handling of sexual assault allegations against former defensive ends Tevin Elliott and Sam Ukwuachu. Elliott was accused of four sexual assaults and one attempted sexual assault, and was found guilty of one of the assaults in 2014. Ukwuachu was found guilty in 2014 of sexually assaulting a former Baylor soccer player. The January findings also showed Baylor officials failed to provide victims with proper support, which is a direct violation of Title IX stipulations. In April, “OTL” reported Baylor officials took two years before investigating a sexual assault report against football players Tre’Von Armstead and Shamycheal Chatman.
These findings, coupled with former Baylor standout Shawn Oakman’s recent arrest for allegedly sexually assaulting a Baylor graduate student, have covered the university in a dark cloud of possible Title IX violations and questions surrounding its treatment of victims of sexual assault. According to ESPN, Baylor did hire an attorney from Philadelphia law firm Pepper Hamilton in the fall of 2015 to review its policy of dealing with sexual assault allegations, and that review has yet to be completed.
Still, the various “OTL” reports boil down to one question: Did Baylor prioritize the football team over the victims? If that’s the case, Baylor joins an unfortunately long list of other institutions who, for whatever reason, attempted to block sexual assault allegations from either becoming public or even being investigated at all.
This isn’t just a Baylor problem, or a college football problem. Sexual assault and domestic violence allegations are serious, and should take priority over winning a bowl game or avoiding bad publicity. Period, end of story.
Thumbnail photo via Jerome Miron/USA TODAY Sports Images
