Nuclear cluelessness in East Lansing, Mich., and Columbus, Ohio, has made back markers lately of the poor folks in Waco, Texas, in the race for college athletics' least coveted title: national champions of Sexual Misconduct, Schmexual Misconduct, We Got Us Football Games To Win.
One thing about those poor Waco folks, though. They will compete with ya.
Comes now a report from PR Week, and if true it puts Baylor University right back in the Money Trumps Civilized Behavior Bowl with Michigan State and Ohio State. According to the report, Baylor officials infiltrated several support groups for sexual assault survivors, a poorly conceived attempt to control their messaging and keep the university from looking bad.
So not only were the school's football players apparently assaulting any coed that moved, the university pulled out all the stops to make sure its athletic cash cow was well protected. And by "all the stops," we mean not just ignoring the program's victims, but actively trying to undermine their attempts to get justice.
I can't think of anything more epically heinous. It's one thing to facilitate criminal behavior by shielding its practitioners. It's several mighty leaps beyond that to covertly sabotage support groups designed to help victims of that behavior heal. In a very real sense, it amounts to assaulting them all over again.
And it's a clear window into why Baylor now is facing a Title IX lawsuit from 10 former students. The charge is serial mishandling of sexual assault cases over the past decade.
If this latest story is true, that charge may not go nearly far enough. Because this latest isn't just serial mishandling of sexual assault cases.
It's active participation in that assault.
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