Is it naïve of Static to expect more honesty and forthrightness from universities that call themselves Christian? Baylor University wears its cross on its sleeve, touting itself as a Baptist institution that helps students grow spiritually as well as scholastically. It’s also now a football powerhouse. Trying to succeed in Big 12 sports while holding true to Christian beliefs can’t be easy. Under-the-table dealings that are so common in college sports would constantly put a coach between a rock and a hard place. Do I ignore the fact that my star player is cheating on exams to pass his classes and taking money from boosters? Or do I play by the rules, report violations, lose players, lose more games, and probably lose my job?
If your name is Baylor University and you brag about your Christian convictions, then you probably should do the right thing. Except Baylor seems to do the wrong thing quite a bit, particularly when it involves sports. Remember back in 2003 when a Baylor basketball player murdered a teammate? And then Coach Dave Bliss encouraged his players and others to describe the deceased as a drug dealer to try to cover up the fact that the coach was paying his tuition in violation of the rules? Sounds a little un-Christian like.
Now comes the saga of Sam Ukwuachu, the celebrated Baylor football prospect who has been sentenced to six months in jail and 10 years probation for the sexual assault of a fellow Baylor student. “Sexual assault” sounds too nice. Ukwuachu raped an 18-year-old virgin, who suffered vaginal injuries and post-traumatic stress.
Rape at college campuses is nothing new. School officials have been trying to ignore it for decades. The federal government became involved after it became clear that many colleges aren’t interested in policing themselves. Recently, Vice President Joe Biden said one in five female college students are sexually assaulted.
Baylor remained silent after Ukwuachu was accused of the crime. Coaches continued to let him work out at the school even after he was indicted. Baylor officials said nothing, just like they stayed mum about the fact that Ukwuachu had been removed from the Boise State team after being involved in a violent situation involving a female student. A skeptical person might speculate that Baylor officials are more concerned about filling the school’s new $250 million football stadium rather than admitting they recruited a violent predator.
Maybe that explains why testimony in the Ukwuachu case indicated that school officials turned on the victim. Baylor did not even remove Ukwuachu from classes he shared with “Jane Doe,” who later transferred to another school after Baylor reduced her scholarship.
A Texas Monthly investigation discovered that Baylor officials had similarly tried to downplay a 2012 sexual assault involving linebacker Tevin Elliott. Who’s to blame them? Circling the wagons and covering up has worked well so far. Remember Bliss? That basketball coach who paid his player’s tuition and then defamed his character after the kid was murdered? Baylor fired Bliss, and the NCAA banned him for 10 years. But now he’s got a new head coaching job … at Southern Christian University.
And what does Baylor’s president and chancellor Ken Starr, have to say now that Ukwuachu has been sentenced to jail? Well, Starr started his statement with the phrase “By God’s grace,” explained how “acts of sexual violence contradict every value Baylor University upholds as a caring Christian community,” and lamented how “our hearts are broken for the victim, who has been terribly harmed by this unspeakable tragedy.”
Sounds almost believable –– except it comes from Starr. Recall that he’s the attorney who was assigned to investigate Bill and Hillary Clinton in the Whitewater real estate deals back in the 1990s but instead became infatuated with Bill’s extramarital affairs, semen-stained dresses, and imaginative uses for cigars. Starr became a moral crusader beloved by the religious right. In 2008, he helped negotiate a sweetheart plea bargain deal for Jeffrey Epstein, a billionaire who was accused of having sex with numerous underage girls. Facing the possibility of a lifetime in prison, Epstein, with Starr’s help, instead received an 18-month sentence, serving 13 before being released. Maybe the moral crusader was just manifesting that Christian trait: forgiveness.
Or maybe he’s just a hypocrite.
Who cares what a Bible college in Waco does?
Your Mama have any brats that lived Roy?
Parents with students who live in Waco care. The people who vote on judges in McLennan county care. Everyone should care when a 18 year old virgin in raped.
Everyone should be aware what the University did and did not do.
Good reporting, only the quilty hate to hear the truth.
There’s no question Baylor should be held as accountable as any other university, and professing Christians should be held accountable too. The problem is that the Fort Worth Weekly isn’t credible when it comes to attacking anything traditional, Christian, white, or Republican — because that’s all they do. For the Weekly to publish an anonymously-written hit piece on Christians and Republicans that sources Joe Biden for rape-incidence data, won’t do anything for the rape victim in Waco.
It’ll be a cold day in hell when the Weekly’s lefty hacks say anything critical of Hillary Clinton’s email scandal; whereas if Hillary carried the GOP label, the Weekly staff would be having orgasms covering it.
Likewise, if a white guy kills a black guy the Weekly will deem it racism and cover it; but if a black guy kills a white guy, all you’ll hear from the Weekly is crickets. I’ve long suspected that George Soros funds this rag.
One may get the Fox News echo chamber talking points /conspiracies you’ve posted here anywhere. Fort Worth Weekly’s sanity is a refreshing oasis from that ilk.
The Obama administration has quoted the one in five students being raped statistic for quite a while and received a lot of blowback about it. The Washington Post spent many months trying to verify. Here’s a story they published recently: http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/local/2015/06/12/1-in-5-women-say-they-were-violated/
The Rolling Stone and Duke lacrosse debunked rape cases point out the danger of rushing to defend an accuser and condemn the accused. President Obama’s summary resolution process foisted on universities abandons consideration of an accused’s right of basic due process. It must be excruciating for a true victim to undergo a process in which the perpetrator must be publicly confronted and the accuser vigorously cross-examined, but what other process is there given that some allegations are false? And this dilemma exists even if not 20% but 100% of college students say they were sexually assaulted.
Nonetheless, if the Weekly wanted to remain loyal to its liberal roots and seek out a Democrat for sexual assault facts, you might have better asked Bill Clinton. He knows.
I talked to a gentleman today who has been associated with the WEEKLY for several years. He contributed to many national newspapers and national magazines for probably longer than you have been alive, judging by your fifth-grade, asinine comments. The guy doesn’t lay around on welfare and food-stamps like you either Stouty. Have you no shame? Anyone so impotent and incompetent to get ran off by those Startle-Gram losers is well advised to keep their childish mouth closed. Simply tell your half-wit Bagger buddies to find some other jerk-off to do their childish harassment, then go find a job of some sort. The Dairy Queen on Berry street is looking for some help, you don’t need to thank me.
Some of the Weekly staff may in fact be on food stamps. This much I know: Weekly’s “award winning” writer Peter Gorman characterizes himself as being among the “working poor”. Maybe the entire staff is on government cheese.
I think it’s fair to say that most journalists, even award winners, are among the working poor. The internet cut deeply into what was formerly paid us. But that does not mean I use food stamps. I don’t. (My family eats very well, thanks, but we eat at home and not in restaurants.) And we get no government handouts, either. I think that’s true of most working poor. The accent is on working.