Jan. 28 (UPI) — A former student filed another Title IX lawsuit against Baylor University on Friday, which claims that the number of rapes involving football players is far greater than previously reported.
The suit, the second filed against the university this week, claims 52 separate “acts of rape” were committed by at least 31 Baylor football players between 2011 and 2014.
The suit, filed in U.S. District Court, is the latest development in an ongoing scandal that alleges vast sexual misconduct at the Waco, Texas, university by players. Friday’s suit was brought by a female Baylor graduate who says she was raped in 2013.
According to the plaintiff, identified with the pseudonym Elizabeth Doe, she was gang-raped after a party by two men from the football team. Those players were named in a police report for the incident, but were never charged.
The woman’s suit blames Baylor for neglecting her claims and violating Title IX.
“We have been working with Baylor on these football cases since the start of this, and though we have appreciated their efforts to fix the problems, this is [a suit] that needed to be filed,” the plaintiff’s attorney, John Clune, said in a statement. “As hard as the events at Baylor have been for people to hear, what went on there was much worse than has been reported.”
The university did not immediately comment on the new lawsuit Friday.
Allegations of sexual assaults involving Baylor have been made for about a year and led to the departure of university president and chancellor Kenneth Starr and the firing of head football coach Art Briles last year. Former Athletic Director Ian McCaw also resigned.
“The school will be a better place when this case is over,” Clune added.
The lawsuit alleges a culture at Baylor where the football program put a premium on showing recruits a good time and using sex as a selling point for potential new players.
“Baylor football players were responsible for numerous crimes involving violent physical assault, armed robbery, burglary, drugs, guns, and, notably, the most widespread culture of sexual violence and abuse of women ever reported in a collegiate athletic program,” the lawsuit says. “Baylor football under Briles had run wild, in more ways than one, and Baylor was doing nothing to stop it.”
The allegations could mean that the number of sexual assaults involving Baylor were far greater than school regents have previously been told. Last fall, university officials were informed by an investigating law firm that incidents involving only 19 players had been uncovered.
