Ex-Baylor president Ken Starr: School never explained firing
Former Baylor president Kenneth Starr says that he was never given a full explanation of why he was fired amid the school's sexual assault scandal and adds that he doubts that gang rapes happened at the school, despite what has been previously reported.
Starr told the Wall Street Journal that administrators at the school were concerned about his preferential treatment of athletes after former Baylor football player Tevin Elliott was suspended from school for academic misconduct and was later convicted and sentenced to 20 years for sexual assault.
Baylor regents told the paper that 17 women have reported sexual or domestic assaults involving 19 different Baylor football players dating back to 2011.
An outside investigation conducted by Philadelphia law firm Pepper Hamilton concluded that there were “institutional failures at every level” at Baylor in addressing sexual violence on campus.
Head football coach Art Briles was fired, athletic director Ian McCaw was suspended and resigned, and other department employees were fired as a result of the Hamilton report.
Starr still says he doesn't believe some of the allegations that have surfaced concerning conduct of the athletes at the school. Two women who reported being gang raped by multiple football players in 2012 reached a financial settlement with Baylor last month.
“I personally have doubts that there were gang rapes,” Starr said.
Starr also said that the judiciary process at the school led to harsh punishments and that he “believed in second chances” for troubled kids and tried to keep them in school.
“This was my moral view of what the president of the university does,” he said.
– Scooby Axson
