Headlines have focused on the university firing its president and football coach. But is that hiding the real story?
Editor’s note: This story contains graphic depictions of rape and sexual assault.
Baylor University has been hiding cases of football players raping and sexually assaulting their fellow students. That story has been hitting the headlines this past week, but the more recent headlines are focused on the more public facet of the story.
When word broke late Thursday morning that Baylor President Ken Starr and football coach Art Briles were taking the fall, it was reported across the media as a administrative shakeup at Baylor.
The story made national news: the demise of giants, each in their own spheres. Starr is a former special prosecutor who, back in the 90s, went after President Bill Clinton over sex allegations. Now he’s been kicked out of office over a sex abuse climate he oversaw. Starr will remain the school’s chancellor, but has lost the privilege of presidency.
Then there’s Briles, one of college football’s winningest coaches: the guy credited with turning a perennial team into a powerhouse – not just in terms of winning games but helping Baylor become a donor magnet. The sparkling new stadium in Waco is a direct byproduct of winning. Briles has been fired.
But Friday morning, as we combed news, the Baylor story has already slipped out of the lead spot in the news cycle. This change may say something about society’s attention span for sexual assault, but it may say something else, too: that Baylor knows how to win.
With one dramatic swing of the axe, the Baylor Board of Regents has lanced that boil, and the media circus has moved on, leaving us to ponder what just happened at Baylor? And is this story just about Baylor?
Paula Lavigne, an investigative journalist whose reporting for ESPN’s Outside the Lines, drew the national spotlight to the story.
Hear the interview and read the rest of the post at Texas Standard.