Hello everyone,
This is Brenda Tracy. My son Darius started this petition a few years ago because he saw the pain I was going through after the Baylor scandal broke in the news. Neither of us could understand how rampant sexual violence and cover ups could still be going on almost 20 years after my gang rape at Oregon State. And since Baylor, we’ve seen even more scandals in college athletics. I worked with the NCAA for two years to address the issue of violent athletes in sports and to my deep dismay, the NCAA has made the decision to do nothing. And to make matters worse, Betsy Devos from the US Dept. of Education has decided to propose rules that will make it EASIER for athletic departments to cover up, ignore and dismiss issues of sexual and physical violence. Under her proposed rules, coaches and athletic administrators will not be held accountable for what they know or what has been reported to them. I know the outrage I feel when I hear about a coach who knew about a gang rape and did nothing. Well, under the newly proposed rules for Title IX, the coach who knew about that gang rape, will no longer be responsible. I could go on and on, but I won’t.

My ask of you today is to sign a new petition. Cody McDavis, my friend and former D1 athlete, is picking up where Darius and I left off. He’s asking the Power 5 Commissioners to ban student athletes with a history of sexual violence. I’m joining him in the fight and I hope you will too.

All it takes is your signature.

One of the best ways to address the sexual violence we see in sports is to ban violent athletes. One of the best ways to respond to the rules being proposed by Betsy Devos is to ban violent athletes. One of the best ways to make our campuses safer is to ban violent athletes. Thank you for your signature. Darius and I appreciate it very much.