Former Baylor Title IX coordinator Patty Crawford resigned yesterday, per a university press release that noted that she was, “disappointed in her role in implementing the recommendations” of the Pepper Hamilton investigation that ripped Baylor officials for their incompetence and malfeasance in handling sexual assault at the school. Today, a report about the circumstances of Crawford’s exit has surfaced and it shows that things got very contentious between Crawford and the school at the end.
KWTX-10, Waco’s CBS affiliate, published a report this afternoon detailing settlement talks between Crawford and Baylor after she filed a retaliation complaint against the school. Apparently Baylor wanted to pay Crawford $1.5 million, with an additional $50,000 for signing a confidentiality agreement. Crawford then asked for $2 million; Baylor refused. Now Crawford plans to go very public with things about Baylor’s administration that it planned to pay over $1.5 million to keep secret.
After their refusal, Crawford told Baylor she planned to speak publicly about her frustration with the administration and the board of regents about the handling of the sexual assault investigation.
[...]
Crawford did not respond to calls and texts Tuesday, but KWTX learned she flew to New York Tuesday morning.
CBS later confirmed that she’ll appear Wednesday morning on “CBS This Morning.”
That’s the most eye-catching detail in their report, but there’s plenty more, such as Baylor’s Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Reagan Ramsower accusing Crawford of “doing her job too well.” At one point, she became so frustrated with what she saw as active subterfuge from Baylor administrators, that she kept all information regarding the Title IX investigation in-house.
Last month KWTX obtained a secretly recorded audio tape of a meeting between Crawford and members of the athletic staff in late July in which Crawford expressed frustration with the administration.
She told the group she had begun to refuse to share names of those involved in Title IX investigations with Baylor administrators, fearful that the officials might take action before those involved in the investigations receive due process.
“That’s what we talked about this week, I said this has to be very clear that at this point, no one is going to know, other than our office, who these people are, what their names are, where this is going”, Crawford says.
You can read the full report over at KWTX-10. Since Crawford will be on national TV tomorrow, I’m sure we’ll hear plenty more about this story very soon.
[KWTX-10]