Baylor vows openness on new sexual assault response web site
Baylor University interim president David Garland wrote a letter Tuesday that says the school did not live up to its values in managing sexual assault within its student body and explains why the majority of its football coaching staff other than head coach Art Briles remained intact this year.
The letter was posted on www.baylor.edu/thetruth, a new web site the school launched Tuesday in advance of a 60 Minutes Sports segment featuring former Title IX coordinator Patty Crawford. The site's title could be construed as a retort to the frequently used football program hashtag #truthdontlie.
Garland explains that the site is intended to provide more details about Baylor's handling of sexual assaults and how it is learning from its mistakes. He also said in response to steady demands for a release of a report from outside counsel Pepper Hamilton that there is no written report, and that Pepper Hamilton was not contracted to investigate whether assaults occurred but rather how Baylor responded to them.
He cited numbers first reported Friday in the Wall Street Journal that since 2011, 17 victims reported sexual or domestic assaults by 19 football players. "Faced with the weight of the information from Pepper Hamilton," Garland wrote, "the Regents concluded by an overwhelming majority that Baylor University and its football program needed new leadership. No other university faced with similar circumstances has moved as decisively to change leadership at the highest levels — its President, Athletic Director and Head Football Coach."
He continued, "With regard to assistant football coaches and other administrators, we decided it would be unfair to remove those further down in the organization for the mistakes of their leaders."
Garland also said the school is removing barriers to its students reporting sexual assaults. The publicly distributed summary of Pepper Hamilton's findings said victims were discouraged from reporting incidents or pursuing assistance or relief.
"That Baylor did not respond as a caring Christian community to those who were hurt grieves all of us — regents, administrators, faculty and staff," Garland wrote. "On behalf of everyone at Baylor, I want to apologize again to the victims and their families. I will do all I can to ensure this never happens again."