Paola Lavigne, ESPN investigative reporter
Baylor University continues to suffer from slow responses to sexual harassment complaints and mishandled some cases against athletes since the height of the scandal in 2016, even as its overall handling of complaints has improved, according to a federal report released Monday.
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights on Thursday released the results of an eight-year investigation that examined Baylor’s conduct from 2014 to 2020. The case stems from a complaint filed by Patty Crawford, the university’s former Title IX coordinator, in September 2016, shortly before she left the school. ESPN obtained copies of the documents, which were first posted online on Monday.
“While OCR recognizes that the University has made significant progress in improving Title IX processes, OCR’s investigation revealed Title IX violations and Title IX compliance issues,” the report states.
“The failure to promptly report incidents of sexual harassment to the Title IX Coordinator prevented the Title IX Coordinator from providing a timely and fair response as required by Title IX. Additionally, the Athletic Department’s involvement in the athlete’s investigation or fact-gathering process resulted in the University “The Title IX process presents conflicts of interest that undermine the legitimacy of some Title IX investigations.”
The university issued a statement Monday in response to the report: “With two limited exceptions, OCR’s findings do not reflect Baylor’s current Title IX plan but rather represent an assessment of the academic plan between 2014-2015 and 2019-2020. Years in review.
The statement noted that the OCR report “echoes some of the findings that Baylor proactively uncovered and shared publicly in May 2016,” while the remaining findings are limited due to a seven-year review period that ended in 2020, “and all findings are long-standing “. Since being remedied. “
The Department for Education report focuses on the university’s performance after an internal review eight years ago vowed to improve its handling of sexual harassment reports.
The review, led by the law firm Pepper Hamilton, found multiple failures in the university’s treatment of students who reported sexual assault and related crimes, particularly when those students involved athletes, particularly the football program. That led to the firing of football coach Art Briles in May 2016, the suspension of athletic director Ian McCaw and the demotion of Baylor President Ken Starr , both later left the university. Starr died in 2022.
The government report noted that of the 49 complaints filed against athletes from January 2017 to September 2020, nearly half were not investigated and were instead closed because the complainants refused to go through the full Title IX process. “During that time period, the university conducted full investigations into only three Title IX complaints against athletes,” it states.
Of the 1,578 sexual harassment complaints made during the same time period, 6% were fully investigated and 34% ended in a “denial process.” The report noted concerns about whether universities are monitoring the reasons why complainants are denied Title IX procedures and taking steps to ensure students and others are not discouraged from filing complaints.
According to the report, a woman reported that an athlete had sexually assaulted her in February 2019 but was unwilling to come forward because the man was a “student-athlete at the peak of his career” and she “believed Universities will show preference for respondents.” Even after school officials told her in September 2019 that another Title IX report had been filed alleging sexual assault against the same athlete, she refused to proceed, the report said. go ahead.
The report also mentions a November 2017 case involving a football player in which “documents confirm that the Athletic Department held discussions with the alleged football player prior to reporting the alleged sexual assault to the Title IX office.”
The case was handled by Baylor’s then-football coach Matt Rhule, who said at the time: “I don’t know a lot about the case, which I think is really a good thing because I probably really shouldn’t know too much. As a football coach.” A Baylor official said Monday that the athletic department referred the case to the Title IX office “within hours.”
Baylor Title IX investigators ultimately found three football players violated the school’s sexual misconduct policy and expelled them.
Referring to athlete complaints, investigators noted that the school also denied a fair Title IX process to accused athletes, suspending them until liability for sexual harassment was found. It noted that all parties had been affected by “significant and unexplained delays” in the handling of complaints. In the 2017 case, it took 351 days to resolve the complaints of three accused students and 447 days for the fourth student.
The OCR report is the last major ruling in the Baylor scandal, which has prompted multiple lawsuits and actions by the Big 12, the NCAA and other regulators. Last year, a federal jury found Baylor responsible for Title IX violations. Federal officials also fined Baylor University more than $400,000 in 2020 for failing to disclose assault reports in its annual crime report under the Jeanne Clery Act.
Crawford filed a Title IX complaint with OCR in September 2016, alleging that the university failed to comply with Title IX provisions when responding to sexual harassment complaints, “particularly those complaints involving student-athletes as respondents,” and retaliated for her involvement in the Pepper Hamilton review.
“This report confirms what I have been saying for years – Baylor failed to comply with Title IX, jeopardizing the safety and rights of students, and challenging my efforts to ensure compliance,” Crawford wrote in a statement. efforts to retaliate,” she said in a statement posted online. “These findings confirm my concerns, and those of many others who have spoken out about the university’s mishandling of sexual harassment cases, particularly when they involve athletes.”
After Education Department officials presented the findings to the university, the school signed a series of improvements outlined in a five-page resolution agreement and agreed to report on its progress in 2025 and 2026.
Baylor agrees that the Title IX Coordinator will review all written and oral complaints of sexual harassment and sexual assault within 30 days of receipt to ensure that these complaints are handled in a “timely and fair manner.”
