Baylor: No discipline too severe

The latest allegations against Baylor are the most disgusting yet.

Such a superlative isn’t thrown around lightly considering the abominable and repugnant details we already knew, but if you have a heart and a brain, you can’t help but be simultaneously angered and sickened by what came to light earlier this week.

A former volleyball player filed a lawsuit against the school, the seventh such Title IX case against Baylor. In her filing, she alleged not only that as many as eight football players took turns raping her and videotaping the episode in 2012, but she also indicated that her gang rape and those of other women were considered “bonding” experiences for football players.

Read that again — gang rapes as bonding experiences.

What is wrong with people?

More to the point, what is wrong with people at Baylor?

Not just the school but the people. As this scandal has unfolded over the past year — we’re still a week away from the Pepper Hamilton report being a year old — it’s easy to take a big-picture view, to think of this rape scandal and sexual assault cover-up as an institutional problem. And there’s no doubt the evidence and the experiences of dozens upon dozens of people points to this being a systemic issue. But still, there were

people turning a blind

eye. There were people telling victims to keep quiet. There people shielding football players who should’ve been in prison instead of practice. Why? Entitlement. By its very definition, entitlement is the feeling or belief that you deserve something, such as special privileges. In other words, the normal rules don’t apply to you.

For years, the sports world has lamented the sense of entitlement in athletes. Tiger Woods. Johnny Manziel. Lance Armstrong. On and on the list goes.

And it’s pretty clear many of the football players who’ve worn Baylor uniforms over the past several years belong in the Entitlement Hall of Fame, too. There’s no other way to explain what is alleged in this most recent lawsuit, claims that were previously backed up by Baylor’s former Title IX coordinator. The football team had “a system of hazing their freshman recruits” that involved the new players bringing freshman females to house parties hosted by older players.

“At these parties, the girls would be drugged and gang raped,” the lawsuit said, “or in the words of the football players, ‘trains’ would be run on the girls.”

Just typing those words makes my skin crawl and my blood boil.

Baylor football players saw rape as their right. They believed they could touch and fondle and violate any woman regardless of the law of the land or the dignity of humans. They thought normal rules didn’t apply to them. Entitlement to a T. But there’s overwhelming evidence that this wasn’t just a player problem at Baylor. In this most recent lawsuit, for example, the victim’s mom told an assistant football coach what had happened. He asked several players about it, but according to the lawsuit, when the players termed the situation “fooling around” and “a little bit of playtime”, the coach did nothing more.

That’s just one of many instances where a school official at Baylor did nothing with a sexual assault claim, even though federal law mandates that they report the allegations. That is part of Title IX. That is their duty.

The adults in the room decided that the normal rules didn’t apply to them. Entitlement. And it continues even as so many at Baylor tout the hundred-plus recommendations adopted by the school to reform its Title IX process. Yes, there are better methods of reporting, addressing and punishing sexual assault by students. But what about the recent comments by new Baylor President Linda Livingstone? The Oklahoma State alum was asked recently by the Houston Chronicle if any student found responsible for sexual assault should be expelled.

Not accused. Found responsible.

At this point at Baylor, you’d think the answer would be cut and dried.

Livingstone’s response: each case should be handled on an individual basis.

So, Baylor might allow men or women found guilty of sexual assault to remain on campus? To live in the dorms? To be near their victim? To be near other potential victims?

Kim Mulkey wants to fight anyone who wouldn’t send their daughter to Baylor. I’m not sure I want

anyone who I love anywhere near that campus.

There was also Baylor’s statement after news of this latest lawsuit broke. The very first thing mentioned is that the incident alleged in the lawsuit “occurred more than five years ago.” Are you kidding me? How long ago this happened is irrelevant. Just because time has passed doesn’t mean the pain or the fear or the anger has gone away. Rape victims are haunted for the rest of their lives.

A week ago, I had the fortune of hearing a panel discussion that included rape survivor turned activist Brenda Tracy. She was gang raped by football players at Oregon State nearly two decades ago — and the pain of that night remains, evident in her tears.

And yet, despite victims’ pain, despite all that has happened at Baylor, so many people there continue to downplay the severity of what has happened. They don’t apologize. They deflect.

In word and in deed, they indicate Baylor is different.

With such rampant entitlement, no punishment seems too severe to rein it in. Giving football the death penalty. Shutting down the athletic department for a time. Being kicked out of the Big 12. Withholding federal funds from the school. Such things sound extreme, but that may be the only way to combat extreme entitlement.

Baylor may have enacted reforms, but changing policies and procedures does little good if hearts and minds remain the same.