By Gavin Pugh | Digital Managing Editor
Former Baylor Title IX Coordinator Patty Crawford, who resigned Monday night and lashed out at Baylor on “CBS This Morning” Wednesday morning, made a critical Facebook post Thursday morning against Baylor administration.
“It’s ironic how Baylor’s response to my resignation and my one voice, speaking the truth with integrity, is by breaking the law and putting out more lies,” Crawford wrote on her Facebook page.
She went on to condemn Baylor’s “senior leaders” and encourage the Title IX office, including the recently appointed coordinator Kristan Tucker. Tucker was appointed Wednesday evening following Crawford’s resignation.
“It’s not about me, or my job, it’s about discrimination…it’s about BAYLOR. It’s about a handful PEOPLE [sic] that actually run Baylor that hate that the work of the Title IX Office (not me, but the amazing team collectively making change) was EFFECTIVE,” Crawford wrote.
In a statement, Baylor said they were surprised by the actions Crawford took following her resignation.
“Her demands in advance of mediation for one million dollars and book and movie rights were troubling,” Baylor said in the statement.
Patty Crawford has not responded to the Lariat’s phone calls regarding her post. The post has since been removed from her Facebook page.
“The entire University community remains committed to supporting the work of the Title IX Office as they lead our efforts in prevention, response and compassionate care for those who experience interpersonal violence,” Baylor said in a statement in response to Crawford’s post.
The following is the complete copy of what Crawford wrote in her post:
“Thank you for being supportive. The chain of events that have transpired, with the worst and most obvious starting in June, have happened very quickly. I’m still in shock that I’m unemployed and yet I continue to trust in the truth.
Baylor may have taken away our financial livelihood, healthcare, and possibly my professional reputation but I fought very hard to maintain the three most priceless things I have (professionally): My voice, my integrity, and the truth. Just this week, I made it very clear to Baylor that these three things can never be bought or sold.
It’s ironic how Baylor’s response to my resignation and my one voice, speaking the truth with integrity, is by breaking the law and putting out more lies.
They’re escalating discrimination, retaliation, trying to buy my integrity and now bullying their way through the media, shows the cowardly and dishonest mentality of the millionaires running Baylor once again. It’s cowardly because the ‘men and woman behind the curtain’ continue to cower behind the national crisis-based public relations firm they’ve retained for over a year and their internal media department. Their contrived collective voices are ‘heard’ through leaks, emails, and statements from their internal media representative.
I’m one woman who was exhausted and tired, not from serving the wonderfully smart and kind Baylor students, staff, and faculty, but from being controlled, patronized, mocked, and lied to by a select group of very powerful senior leaders because I was fighting discrimination and actually doing it well, even in the most difficult of circumstances. Last month the senior leaders started becoming more obvious with their resentfulness of this effective social change that was starting to happen at Baylor. I was being directly manipulated and harassed by a select group of powerful leaders and I knew the only way I could keep doing my job for the worthy Baylor community was to file official complaints to both the Office for Civil Rights and Baylor’s Human Resource department. I did these two things Monday and Tuesday last week. On Thursday at 10 AM I was told to leave my office at Baylor because I was being put on administrative leave.
By Thursday afternoon I was kicked off the Baylor network (knowing this only because I was working from home). On Friday I learned the senior leaders met and were told by the VP of Human Resources that I was put on administrative leave for ‘ongoing performance issues’ and that I would not be presenting to the board in my usual time slot on October 13. I was formally removed from the Board of Regents agenda that same day.
On Monday I made it clear that my voice, my integrity and the truth could not be bought. I was bullied, threatened, and harassed as a tactic to scare me and wear me down so I’d concede…while I was exhausted and very hurt, I stayed true to myself. I agreed to resign Monday night.
There’s a lot I know about Baylor, one of those things is if a voice is in the media, even a WOMAN’s voice, they will hear it. It is my last opportunity to do what’s right for the women and men of Baylor that deserve to have their former Title IX Coordinator channel the truth, one last time, in hopes that Baylor will actually listen and get back to the roots of the issue to start changing the culture of their leadership strategies that will in essence shift the entire University culture through appropriate resources and support, with genuine respect for the work rather than the ‘checking off the box” and “washing of the hands’ mentality they’ve been in all summer.
So, Monday night, instead of going home, hugging Ben and the kids, and crying myself to sleep (which was what I really wanted to do), I decided to go on national live television and answer the hard questions, for all of those at Baylor who know this movement can’t end, the voice of reason and right must be heard, and unfortunately all Baylor has right now is my one, unemployed, and seemingly defeated voice.
Thankfully I have an employment lawyer who went with me, at no cost, knowing my ‘fight’ is exhausted but definitely not defeated. Also knowing that Baylor will do anything and everything to shut me up.
Yesterday I had three minutes on national live television. I answered the hard questions and said the uncomfortable truth. It was my voice alone…no media training, no publicist, no fluff, just the truth.
The interesting thing is when I was there with no money, no job,no power, no husband, no friends or family, no real worldly gain (and wearing the same outfit I had on since Monday) it is still the truth.
I guess that scares Baylor.
So they’ve lied and they will mostly likely continue to lie. The tactic to discredit me, scare me, hurt me…it will work for a portion of the public and I get that. But, I’m pretty sure it’s a tactic to DISTRACT all of us from what this is really about. It’s not about me, or my job, it’s about discrimination…it’s about BAYLOR. It’s about a handful PEOPLE that actually run Baylor that hate that the work of the Title IX Office (not me, but the amazing team collectively making change) was EFFECTIVE. And that goes against a lot of the long-standing grain of the Baylor-way…and it’s costing them MONEY. Two of their favorite things..the Baylor way and money.
I’m home now and need to re-start my life as a wife, mother, daughter, sister, and friend. I need to find a job and we will need to move forward keeping our integrity in tact.
I know reporters are trying to talk with me but my life is not going to become a media frenzy or a back-and-forth with Baylor’s million-dollar public relations firm. I introduced the truth in three ways that will hopefully have ongoing impact to TRULY support the faculty, staff, and students at Baylor…especially Kristan and her amazing Title IX team. I’m so proud of them and miss them with all my heart, but I’m still FOR them.
1. My complaint, against a select group at Baylor, to the Office for Civil Rights will continue forward;
2. The national message sent out yesterday;
3. And, a larger, more comprehensive piece on the truth will be on 60-Minutes Sports in the near future.
Baylor will continue to do whatever it takes to protect their brand and that means hurting me and my three little children and amazing husband…which is still shocking and incomprehensible, but obviously a risk I was willing to take. All for the sake of ending a terrible rape and discrimination culture fed by silencing, ego, money, and denial.
We may have no income and no idea what will happen next, but we have our integrity and hopefully later in life my children will have learned that making the right decision is never easy, but it’s still right and that’s all that matters. I got home last night and my kids were so happy. Josie made me a gift and gave it to me last night, it said..’I’m so glad you won’t be working all of the time anymore because I miss you.’
Wow…I missed her too.
In that moment, my original sentiments of ‘no fear’ returned (I was starting to panic on the plane ride home). Josie reminded me that material security and vulnerability to powerful lies is nothing compared to having integrity, speaking the truth out of love, and being a mother and wife again.
Thank you again for your kindness, encouragement, and support. I read the comments and posts on my page yesterday at the airport, when I was feeling a bit defeated and worried about how I was going to take care of my family moving forward. It was a wonderful gift to realize I actually am not (and never have been) in this alone. All of my Baylor colleagues…I miss you already. Please do one thing for me…SUPPORT and be KIND to Kristan, Sarah, Brianna, Mike, Carolyn, Trenia, and Britney (Title IX team). They’re incredible and the workload is overwhelming. They deserve real institutional support, resources, and independence to serve all of you well.
Warmly– Patty“
