Baylor Investigating Handling of Past Sexual Assault Cases Amid Accusations

Baylor University may be under fire again after a Jan. 31 report by Paula Lavigne for ESPN's Outside the Lines criticized the school's handling of alleged sexual assaults.

Patty Crawford, Baylor's Title IX coordinator, told Lavigne the school has hired an independent consultant to examine how it dealt with past sexual assault investigations.

"We do want to be our best, and we're always wanting to be an improvement from yesterday," Crawford said, per Lavigne.

Lavigne tells the story of a female student, Tanya, who was sexually assaulted by former Bears football player Tevin Elliott. Elliott was eventually sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Baylor's campus police declined to help Tanya since the assault happened off school grounds, while the university's health center suggested she seek counseling from an off-campus facility because the center was so busy.

According to Lavigne, Tanya's story isn't an isolated incident:

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Yet an investigation by Outside the Lines found several examples in Tanya's case, and others at Baylor, in which school officials either failed to investigate, or adequately investigate, allegations of sexual violence. In many cases, officials did not provide support to those who reported assaults. Moreover, it took Baylor more than three years to comply with a federal directive: In April 2011, the U.S. Department of Education sent a letter to all colleges and universities outlining their responsibilities under Title IX, including the need for each school to have a Title IX coordinator. Baylor didn't hire a full-time coordinator until fall 2014.

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"I actually didn't watch it, but my reaction is sadness and sorrow because it's something you never want to be associated with," Baylor head football coach Art Briles said of the report on Feb. 3, via Bruce Feldman of Fox Sports. "You'd like to think you're immune to it, but I'm not sure anybody is. 

"As those things come up, you deal with them to the best that you're capable of doing. Then, you try to educate and make awareness to it and hopefully, it never happens again."

Serious questions arose after the school's handling of a case involving former football player Sam Ukwuachu. Jessica Luther and Dan Solomon wrote an in-depth report in August 2015 for Texas Monthly detailing the allegations against Ukwuachu and many of the school's missteps as it investigated the claims against him.

Baylor launched an internal probe following the report, with school president Ken Starr concluding last August that an outside source would need to conduct further analysis to properly account for the school's potential failings during the investigatory process.