https://twitter.com/ChuckCarltonDMN/status/830191847507161088
That makes me sick
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Although Watson’s bills largely focus on making it easier for students to report sexual assault, he is also working on legislation that targets institutional failure and penalizes schools for failing to be proactive.
Watson has co-sponsored a bill with Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston, that would hold school employees and student leaders accountable for reporting instances of “sexual harassment, sexual assault, family violence or stalking” to the school’s president within 48 hours of becoming aware of the incident.
A Texas State Rep. has filed a house resolution asking Gov. Greg Abbott to begin an investigation by the Texas Rangers into the activities of the Baylor administration and campus police in response to the school’s sexual assault issues.
“Baylor University has resisted all efforts to provide the public with information which would reveal the conduct of senior administrators, and instead attempted to put the blame entirely on football coaches,” the resolution reads. “Baylor’s Police Department operated under authority of Texas statutes, yet Baylor University has successfully claimed it is not subject to the same Freedom of Information Requests that apply to local police departments. Although Baylor coaches certainly deserve blame, they are not solely responsible for the over 125+ female students that were wrongfully treated.”
On Monday, Feb. 27, Rep. Roland Gutierrez will hold a press conference in the Speaker’s Committee Room and is expected to deliver a letter to Gov. Abbott detailing his concerns and outlining his call to action.
This post has been edited at the request of Zara.
The hits just keep on coming for Baylor:
Google Search Link: Baylor, Kim Mulkey take step back after insensitive speech - Google Search
Baylor beat Texas Tech 86-48 Saturday, giving Mulkey her 500th win at the university and the Lady Bears their seventh consecutive Big 12 regular-season title. Amid celebrating the accomplishments, she spoke to fans at Waco’s Ferrell Center.
“If somebody’s around you and they ever say, ‘I will never send my daughter to Baylor,’ you knock them right in the face,” she told the crowd of cheering fans.
“If they didn’t sit in those meetings and they weren’t a part of the investigation, then you’re repeating things that you’ve heard,” she said. “It’s over, it’s done. And this is a great institution. And I would send my daughter here. And I’d pay for anybody’s else’s daughter to come here. I work here every day. I’m in the know. And I’m tired of hearing it. This is a great institution. The problems we have at Baylor are no different than the problems at any other school in America. Period. Move on. Find another story to write.”
Baylor fans cheered her message.
“Not only do I sympathize with victims, I am angry about the way victims were treated at this university,” Mulkey said. “It is horrible, horrible anytime someone does not take care of a victim. Even one sexual assault is too many. Nobody is dismissing what happened here. I want us to get to the bottom of it.”
Baylor said in its Monday statement that HR 664 “contains several factual inaccuracies and/or mischaracterizations,” and it notes strides the school police department has made in its response to sexual violence and campus safety.
Oklahoma coach Sherri Coale was among those who spoke out against Mulkey’s comments. She told The Oklahoman she was “disappointed” in Mulkey and that women have a responsibility to fight for one another.
Mulkey gave no insight on how she felt about criticism by anyone. When asked if she was surprised by all the attention her statements got, she deflected attention to Oklahoma’s Senior Night.
Everything’s fine…Everything’s better now:
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A spokeswoman for the McLennan County district attorney’s office in Waco, where Baylor is located, originally said she could not comment on an open investigation. Later, District Attorney Abel Reyna clarified that his office is working with Baylor to obtain more information, but disputed that it rose to the level of an investigation.
In the one page letter, which Briles initially intended to send to the Baylor student newspaper, The Lariat, the former coach says he never covered up sexual violence, never had contact with any victim of sexual or domestic violence and claims the potentially damming text messages of his released by an attorney representing Baylor regents were “out of context.”
“Let me be clear. I did not cover up sexual violence,” the letter reads. “Anyone well-versed in my work as a coach knows that I strove to promote excellence, but never at the sacrifice or safety for anyone.”
In defending the school against critics last weekend, Mulkey said Baylor fans should “knock them right in the face” and said it’s time to “move on” from the scandal. After those comments caused a storm of controversy, the two-time national championship coach said Thursday she is “sorry for the choice of words.”
Mulkey also said her heart goes out to assault victims and said the school failed them.
Google Search Link: Art Briles defends his record in Baylor scandal - Google Search
“It’s hard to take any of Baylor’s former coaches seriously at this point,” John Clune, attorney for a woman who is suing Baylor under the pseudonym Elizabeth Doe, told the Associated Press. “We’re going to find out for ourselves what happened and who deserves further consequences.”
Irwin Zalkin, attorney for Jasmin Hernandez, who was sexually assaulted by football player Tevin Elliott, told the Associated Press that Briles would have to be “deaf, blind and dumb” to have not known about previous allegations involving Elliott, who is serving 20 years for two counts of assault.
That means, at least in part, that all 10 women’s cases can proceed. According to Pitman’s order, the clock didn’t start ticking on the two-year statute of limitations for heightened risk liability claims against Baylor until spring 2016, “when media reports regarding the rampant nature of sexual assault on Baylor’s campus first came to light.”
These guys just keep talking 
“However, we don’t have all the facts. We have these email and text messages (made public through a legal filing by regents earlier this year), and I don’t know how to assess them. I’ve always been of the view that you need to have all the facts and then you assess them. So it would be my hope that we have all the facts because we need to have transparency. We need to have truth out there so we can come to informed judgments.”