Federal report on Baylor finds delays in Title IX cases - ESPN

Baylor University continued to have problems with delays in its response to sexual harassment complaints and improperly handled some cases against athletes since the peak of its scandal in 2016, although its overall handling of complaints improved, according to a federal report released Monday.

The Office for Civil Rights with the U.S. Department of Education on Thursday issued the results of its eight-year investigation, which examined Baylor's behavior from 2014 to 2020. The case stemmed from a complaint filed by the university's former Title IX coordinator Patty Crawford in September 2016, shortly before she left the school. ESPN obtained a copy of the documents, which were first posted online Monday.

«While OCR recognizes that the University has made significant strides in improving its Title IX process, OCR's investigation revealed violations of Title IX as well as Title IX compliance concerns,» the report states.

«The failure to immediately report sexual harassment to the Title IX Coordinator prevented the Title IX Coordinator from providing a prompt and equitable response as required by Title IX. Moreover, involvement of the Athletics Department in the investigative or fact-gathering process for athletes introduced a conflict of interest into the University's Title IX process, compromising the legitimacy of some Title IX investigations.»

The university issued a statement Monday in response to the report: «With two limited exceptions, OCR's findings are not reflective of Baylor's current Title IX program, but instead represent a backwards look at the time frame between the 2014-2015 and 2019-2020 academic years.»

The statement noted that the OCR report «echoed a number of the findings that Baylor proactively