Baylor University has settled a yearslong federal lawsuit brought by 15 women who alleged they were sexually assaulted at the nation’s biggest Baptist school, ending the largest case brought in a wide-ranging scandal that led to the ouster of university president Ken Starr and football coach Art Briles, and tainted the school’s reputation.
Notification of the settlement was filed in online court records Monday. The lawsuit was first filed in June 2016.
Among the 15 plaintiffs was a woman who alleged being assaulted by a football player in April 2014, a woman who reported that two football players assaulted her in April 2016 and a woman who said a player on the rugby team — a club sport at Baylor — assaulted her in fall 2012, according to the complaints.
The lawsuit was one of several that were filed that alleged staff and administrators ignored or stifled reports from women who said they were assaulted on or near campus.
Among the early claims from some women in the lawsuit were that school officials sometimes used the campus conduct code that banned alcohol, drugs and premarital sex to pressure women not to report being attacked. Another previously settled lawsuit alleged Baylor fostered a “hunting ground for sexual predators.”
