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Baylor’s onfield football success came at a great cost to young women on campus – Rape victim says she was gang-raped by football players whose coach created environment ‘rife with sexual assault’

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Former student athlete filed a lawsuit against Baylor Univ for creating an environment ‘rife with sexual assault’  and using sex to lure prospective recruits to their program
Volleyball player ‘Jane Doe’ said she was gang-raped by football players whose behaviour was enabled by their  coach 
Victim alleges she was gang raped by eight players while intoxicated and drugged in Feb, 2012
The suspects later bragged on campus about “riding train” on the plaintiff, referring to the night they took turns raping her – football team had a hazing system for freshmen requiring them to bring freshman girls to parties, with the intention of them being drugged and raped,  known as having “ ‘trains’  run on the girls”
Suspects counter, telling her that the sex was consensual and that she “wanted it” 
Title winning coach Art Briles, was Baylor’s football coach at the time
Initially hired to turn the school’s low-ranked football team into a winner, Briles’ unprecedented success apparently came at great moral cost
He was fired in May, 2016 amid controversy that included multiple former Baylor football players involved in rape accusations
Some were convicted on sexual assault charges, ending up in jail
 Ex-Baylor football coach Art Briles2.jpg
Art Briles, former Baylor’s football coach allegedly created an environment ‘rife with sexual assault’

A former student athlete at Baylor University alleged she was gang-raped by as many as eight football players, in a lawsuit filed against the school.

Adding to the lore of campus sex-relate crimes at the school, the student, referred to as Jane Doe, said she was “brutally gang raped by at least four and, according to some reports, as many as eight, Baylor football players” in Feburary 2012.
The night of the alleged assault, Jane Doe attended an off-campus house party hosted by members of the football team.
The plaintiff who recalls being intoxicated and also drugged, alleges the football team had a hazing system for freshmen requiring them to bring freshman girls to parties, with the intention of them being drugged and raped, “or in the words of the football players, ‘trains’ would be run on the girls.” These  sexual-assaults were photographed and videotaped.
There was at least one 21-second videotape of two students being gang raped by football players, according to the plaintiff.

Current and former Baylor students hold a rally warning of sexually assaults on and off campus, Friday, June 3, 2016, in Waco, Texas..jpgCurrent and former Baylor students held a rally warning of sexually assaults on and off campus in Waco, Texas, June 3, 2016

The plaintiff said a football player picked her up, put her in his vehicle, and drove her away from the party to a place where she was gang-raped, the lawsuit says.
She remembers hearing the athletes yell, “Grab her phone! Delete my numbers and texts!” the lawsuit says.
Members of the football team characterized the encounter differently, telling her that the sex was consensual and that she “wanted it,” the lawsuit says. They resorted to spreading rumors around the Waco, Tex., campus following the incident, bragging about “riding train” on the plaintiff, referring to the night they allegedly took turns raping her.
The lawsuit doesn’t name any of the football players.
Art Briles, Baylor’s football coach at the time, was hired to turn the school’s low-ranked football team into a winner. The team achieved a formidable record under his leadership, and even produced a Heisman Trophy winner, but as later events would prove, at great human and moral cost to the institution.
The lawsuit alleges that the football team’s success came at the expense of many young women on campus.

Former Baylor Univ president Ken Starr1.jpg
Baylor University Ken Starr lost his job over the manner the school handled the avalanche of rape and assault incidents on campus 

The suit referred described football players as “larger-than-life celebrities” who acted, and were treated, as if they were above the law.
“In order to ensure that a last place team could recruit the players needed to win football games, Baylor’s recruiting efforts used sex to sell the program,” the lawsuit said. “Under Briles, the culture of Baylor football and rape became synonymous.”
While recruiting a Dallas area high school athlete, assistant coach Kendall Briles asked, “Do you like white women? Because we have a lot of them at Baylor and they LOVE football players.”
The father-son combo also arranged for women to have sex with recruits during their official campus visits.
The complaint is the seventh Title IX lawsuit filed against the university. An investigation by the law firm Pepper Hamilton shows that 17 victims have reported allegations of sexual assault or domestic violence by 19 Baylor football players.
More recent reports, however, show that from 2011 to 2014, there were at least 52 acts of rape, including five gang rapes, by 31 different football players.
Victims said they reported their attacks to various campus officials, including police, physicians, student advocacy officials, a chaplain, a professor, an assistant dean and a dorm director, and got little or no assistance.

Patty Crawford1.jpg
Patty Crawford, former Title IX Coordinator at Baylor University resigned because the school impeded her job

In January 2017, a lawsuit filed in Texas federal court alleged Baylor football players committed 52 rapes over four years.
As details of “horrifying and painful” sex crimes rife on the Baylor University emerged, head football coach Art Briles lost his job as did college president, Ken Starr.
A report prepared by the Philadelphia law firm Pepper Hamilton LLP in 2016, highlighted that 17 women reported sexual or domestic assaults involving 19 players. Four of the attacks were alleged gang rapes.
Disturbingly, Briles knew about one alleged incident but did not alert police, the school’s judicial affairs staff or Title IX officer responsible for coordinating the private Baptist university’s response to sexual violence.
Critics said Starr, Briles and other Baylor officials put the school’s football program, then ranked eighth in the nation, ahead of women’s safety.
Baylor’s Title IX coordinator Patty Crawford resigned earlier, in February 2016, after complaining that school officials had impeded her efforts to address sexual assault, which she called a campus-wide issue not isolated to football.

Baylor students held a candlelight vigil outside Chancellor Starr_s home in February, 2016 over the school_s handling of a string of sexual assaultsBaylor students held a candlelight vigil outside college president Ken Starr’s home in February, 2016 over the school’s handling of a string of sexual assaults

Baylorhas had to settle a similar lawsuit filed by former student Jasmin Hernandez, who was attacked by former football player Tevin Elliott in 2012. Elliott is one of two former Baylor football players convicted of sexual assault since 2014.  Hernandez gave up her anonymity to speak publicly and draw attention to the case.

 

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