It's been roughly over a week since Baylor fired head coach Art Briles after the school found, upon its own investigation that Briles and members of his staff severely mishandled instances of Baylor football players that were accused of sexual assault. According to a report from Pepper Hamilton, members of the staff shockingly took steps to not disclose the sexual assault or dating violence allegations, thus not allowing the University to take the proper steps. Because the coaches did this, it reportedly "discredited" complaints and denied the accusers a right to "a fair, impartial and informed investigation, which directly goes against Title IX standards.
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This directly goes against Title IX, the statute that directly states the correct steps that schools need to take in order to deal with alleged instances of sexual assault. Two of Briles assistants were let go in the aftermath of the head coach's firing — Colin Shillinglaw, the athletics director for football operations, and Tom Hill, a longtime staff member. Following the school naming Jim Grobe as the team's acting head coach, school president Ken Starr and AD Ian McCaw stepped down as well. News broke Friday afternoon on what Baylor would be doing with the rest of Briles' assistants.
That last tweet from Olson may be true, but since the full Hamilton report — no specific names in the Hamilton report have been released due to "privacy concerns" — the findings of Hamilton's report are eye-opening, and one would assume that this kind of behavior wasn't limited to just Briles and a few of his assistants. Below is an excerpt of the report transcribed from College Football Talk.
"Baylor failed to take appropriate action to respond to reports of sexual assault and dating violence reportedly committed by football players. The choices made by football staff and athletics leadership, in some instances, posed a risk to campus safety and the integrity of the University. In certain instances, including reports of a sexual assault by multiple football players, athletics and football personnel affirmatively chose not to report sexual violence and dating violence to an appropriate administrator outside of athletics. In those instances, football coaches or staff met directly with a complainant and/or a parent of a complainant and did not report the misconduct. As a result, no action was taken to support complainants, fairly and impartially evaluate the conduct under Title IX, address identified cultural concerns within the football program, or protect campus safety once aware of a potential pattern of sexual violence by multiple football players.
In addition, some football coaches and staff took improper steps in response to disclosures of sexual assault or dating violence that precluded the University from fulfilling its legal obligations. Football staff conducted their own untrained internal inquiries, outside of policy, which improperly discredited complainants and denied them the right to a fair, impartial and informed investigation, interim measures or processes promised under University policy. In some cases, internal steps gave the illusion of responsiveness to complainants but failed to provide a meaningful institutional response under Title IX. Further, because reports were not shared outside of athletics, the University missed critical opportunities to impose appropriate disciplinary action that would have removed offenders from campus and possibly precluded future acts of sexual violence against Baylor students. In some instances, the football program dismissed players for unspecified team violations and assisted them in transferring to other schools. As a result, some football coaches and staff abdicated responsibilities under Title IX and Clery; to student welfare; to the health and safety of complainants; and to Baylor's institutional values."
While Baylor may or may not be truthful — or not even know for sure if they're factually correct — with the claims that no other assistants Grobe is keeping on, it sounds like naming a temporary head coach and keeping a vast majority of Briles' assistants is a giant effort to save the 2016 season. Shouldn't cleaning house and starting fresh completely when serious acts of misconducts come out be more important than how many wins and losses you get next year? It appears it may not be, at least for now.
