As the world's largest Baptist university, Baylor is unabashedly Christian. There is a strict code of conduct for all students that forbids, with the threat of expulsion, any sex outside of marriage, alcohol drinking, drug use, pornography and other acts. Students weren't allowed to dance on campus until 1996.
During the last several years, however, Baylor officials were hiding a dark secret: Female students were being sexually assaulted at an alarming rate by members of the school's football team.
Baylor administrators did very little to help victims, and the assailants rarely faced discipline for their abhorrent behavior.
Finally, after a pair of high-profile criminal cases involving football players, an independent examination of Baylor's handling of allegations of sexual assault led to sweeping changes, including the unprecedented ouster of its president, athletics director, and popular, highly successful football coach.
Paula Lavigne and Mark Schlabach weave together the complex, and at times contradictory, narrative of how a university and football program ascending in national prominence came crashing down amidst the stories of woman after woman coming forward describing their assaults, and a university system they found indifferent to their pain. Their book is "Violated: Exposing Rape at Baylor University amid College Football's Sexual Assault Crisis."
