A Title IX lawsuit filed against Baylor University has been given the green light to proceed by a federal judge.
U.S. District Judge Robert Pittman filed a 27-page order to allow for a lawsuit involving 10 women to move forward. In that lengthy order, the judge said each woman attached to the lawsuit “has plausibly alleged that Baylor was deliberately indifferent to her report(s) of sexual assault.” As a result, none of the women were able to fulfill their academic pursuits, according to the judge’s order.
Baylor has a tough fight ahead of it with this and other lawsuits, and it may be in the university’s best interest to work out some potential settlements as quickly as possible, because this story is not likely to result in Baylor coming out looking any better than it currently sits.
“The ruling is (a) great leap forward for each of our 10 clients, and all Baylor victims,” lawyer Chad Dunn, who represents one of the women attached to the lawsuit, said in a statement. “Full discovery now starts, and real transparency can come to Baylor.”
That is not going to be pretty for Baylor. It rarely is, and we’ve already seen reports suggesting how poorly these incidents were handled by university and football leaders. Former head coach Art Briles and others associated with the Baylor football program and the university could be called on as witnesses through this process.
One point the judge noted was the possibility the women attached to the Baylor scandal were misinformed about their Title IX rights, which would be a huge sticking point in the court of law for the university to combat. The details revealed to this point paint an ugly picture over how Baylor coaches and staff members acted and responded to alleged acts of sexual criminal activity by football players, including confronting and investigating the issues themselves, thus violating the proper procedures to comply with Title IX at Baylor University.
[ESPN]
