Video by Jessica Babb | Broadcast Managing Editor
Article by Kalyn Story | Staff Writer
After a former Baylor Bruin filed a lawsuit Friday against the university suing for Title IX violations and negligence, other former Bruins have spoken out detailing different experiences they had as Bruins.
The lawsuit, filed by Elizabeth Doe, claims Baylor had a “show ’em a good time” recruiting policy, which included making Baylor Bruins available for sex with recruits, taking recruits to strip clubs, recruiting based on implied promises of sex and using alcohol and drugs in the recruiting process.
Baylor alumna Ashton Bremer was a Bruin at the time the lawsuit alleges the “show ‘em a good time” policy was used and said her experiences were nothing like the ones described in the lawsuit.
“I’m not saying that anybody lied about what happened, but I know that that year I was a Bruin and my best friends were Bruins and we were never even, nothing like that was even insinuated,” Bremer said.
Bremer said the Bruins had weekly meetings where all rules were reiterated, rules like not allowing recruits to take anything out of the recruiting room — not even a pen, which she said could be considered a gift from the university.
The lawsuit alleges that 31 Baylor football players committed at least 52 acts of rape, including five gang rapes, between 2011 and 2014. In a Wall Street Journal article from October 2016, Baylor regents said they were aware of 17 reports of sexual assault against 19 football players, including four gang rapes, since 2011.
The lawsuit describes the Bruins as “a football ‘hostess’ program with the purpose of using attractive female students to escort recruits and their families to campus events and football games on official visits to Baylor.”
Tenley Gummelt was a Baylor Bruin in 2011 and made a Facebook post expressing her gratitude to the Bruins and confidence in the organization’s integrity.
“Point blank, the women involved with Baylor Gold and Baylor Bruins were held to a high standard, and were expected to behave above reproach, during their time in and out of the organization,” Gummelt wrote in her Facebook post. “The things being described in that article are horrendous, and would never have been encouraged by the leaders of those organizations.”
Baylor interim President David Garland sent a statement to the Baylor community on Saturday night outlining the changes Baylor has made in response to the sexual assault allegations.
“Our hearts are heavy at the thought of anyone experiencing sexual assault within our community,” Garland wrote. “Any such acts are reprehensible and unacceptable. The university remains committed to eliminating all forms of sexual and gender-based harassment and discrimination within our community.”
The Baylor Bruins social media pages have not been active since 2015. On Baylor’s website under student organizations, the Baylor Bruins link diverts to the Baylor Alumni Network page.
“Baylor had an unofficial policy of looking the other way when there was sexual intercourse between the Bruins and the football players,” the lawsuit claims, which is against Baylor’s student code of conduct which does not condone sex outside of marriage.
“It was suggested that we did things that I certainly didn’t do and I know my friends didn’t do, so I was really kind of shocked by that,” Bremer said. “It [dragged] our name through the mud, so that infuriated me.”
