Baylor is facing additional complaints from a former Title IX investigation over the way the school handled sexual violence.
Gabrielle Lyons accused Baylor of employment discrimination in a complaint filed Dec. 8, 2016, with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, alleging that school officials tried to intimidate her from investigating certain cases. That follows a Title IX complaint filed April 27, 2016, on Lyons’ behalf with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.
Baylor is already facing a Title IX investigation by the Department of Education following a complaint to the OCR by Patty Crawford, who resigned in October 2016 as the school’s Title IX coordinator. Crawford accused school administrators of undermining her and preventing her from doing her job, saying she had been set up to fail.
An independent investigation last year by Pepper Hamilton found that Baylor had failed to comply with Title IX in its response to reports of sexual violence, even going so far as to discourage reporting in some cases. Pepper Hamilton made 105 recommendations designed to address the school’s shortcomings, and the school adopted all of them.
Football coach Art Briles was fired as a result of the report, and university chancellor Kenneth Starr was demoted. He later resigned. Athletic director Ian McCaw was placed on probation before he, too, resigned.
By Nancy Armour
This article was republished with permission from the original author and 2015 Ronald Reagan Media Award recipient, Nancy Armour, and the original publisher, USA Today. Follow columnist Nancy Armour on Twitter @nrarmour.