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p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Calibri; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Calibri; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000; min-height: 17.0px} span.s1 {font-kerning: none} span.s2 {font-kerning: none; color: #ff2500} p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Geneva} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 36.0px; font: 12.0px Geneva} Written by ESPN investigative reporters VIOLATED narrates the sexual abuse by members of Baylor's football team and the university's attempt to silence the victims. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to RAINN to help fight sexual abuse.Throughout its history, Baylor University has presented itself as something special: As the world's largest Baptist university, it was unabashedly Christian. It condemned any sex outside of marriage, and drinking alcohol was grounds for dismissal. Students weren't even 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. Baylor administrators did very little to help victims, and their 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. For several years, campuses and sports teams across the country have been plagued with accusations of sexual violence, and they've been criticized for how they responded to the students involved. But Baylor stands out. A culture reigned in which people believed that any type of sex, especially violent non-consensual sex, simply "doesn't happen here." Yet it was happening. Many people within Baylor's leadership knew about it. And they chose not to act. 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.



About the Author

Paula Lavigne

Paula Lavigne is an ESPN investigative reporter working primarily for the Outside the Lines brand on television and online. She is experienced in covering several topics and is a specialist in data journalism and statistics and also trains colleagues on databases and investigative reporting techniques. She worked previously as a reporter at The Dallas Morning News, The Des Moines Register, and The News-Tribune in Tacoma, Washington. She has degrees from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Creighton University.

Her and her colleagues' work on the Baylor sexual assault cases for ESPN has already won awards, including a 2017 Gracie Award for investigative television feature. In 2015, Lavigne was the recipient of a first prize for broadcast investigative reporting from the Education Writers Association for a story about the University of Missouri's handling of a sexual assault case. She was a winner of the 2014 Alfred I. duPont Columbia University Award for her work on a series of stories that uncovered a high-stakes gambling ring on youth football in South Florida that led to several arrests. And she was among the team of reporters and producers nominated for a Sports Emmy Award in 2009 for a story on Penn State University players getting in trouble with the law. (@pinepaula)



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