A sexual assault survivor and her son are petitioning the NCAA to ban athletes who commit violent offenses like rape and domestic abuse.
Since going live on Change.org Tuesday, the petition has collected more than 41,000 signatures. The petition, launched by Darius Adams, repeats an open letter he published on The Huffington Post a week earlier.
"This rule change would show people that the NCAA cares because right now it looks like they don't," 23-year-old Adams told HuffPost. "They have the power to do something. So why aren't they?"
Adams' mother, Brenda Tracy, said she was gang-raped by four football players in 1998 while attending a party hosted by Oregon State University students. Two of the men did not play for Oregon State. But the two who did were only punished with 25 hours of community service and a one-game suspension.
Tracy came forward with her story in 2014 and has since worked with Oregon State to improve how it handles sexual assault. She and OSU President Ed Ray lobbied the Pac-12, a conference within the NCAA, to bar student athletes from transferring schools to play on athletic teams if they would be unable to re-enroll at their original college due to misconduct issues like assault, harassment or academic fraud. The rule prevents an athlete who violates a school's sexual misconduct policy from simply transferring to avoid punishment and continuing their athletic career.
NCAA Board of Governors Chair L. Jay Lemons and President Mark Emmert responded to Adams and Tracy on Friday with a letter outlining policies for sexual assaults committed by athletes. It did not say whether they would adopt a policy like the one the petition asks for, but did say that sexual violence policies would be discussed at the board's meeting in August.
The petition launched this week as anger swirled around the lenient sentence for Brock Turner, who, as a former Stanford University swimmer with hopes to qualify for the Olympics, was given six months in jail for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman. USA Swimming banned Turner for life, and Adams is seeking to have the NCAA institute a similar policy.
"Society has come to this conclusion that somehow if you are an athlete then you must be a hero -- not true, and we have to stop buying into that," Tracy said. "The truth is that some rapists and criminals just happen to possess outstanding athletic ability. Being good at a sport doesn't make you a good human being."
The petition was spurred in part by recent revelations that Baylor University failed for years to properly address reports that football players committed sexual and physical assaults.
"In some instances, the football program dismissed [accused] players for unspecified team violations and assisted them in transferring to other schools," an independent report concluded.
"It was my mom that made me want to get involved," Adams said. "When she saw the news about Baylor she was really, really upset. She was pacing around the house trying to figure out what she could do to help. That's when the idea of the letter came up."
"You hear from survivors, but you don't usually hear from their families," he continued. "And I'm her son. I want to support and help her in any way I can. I don't want her to be in this fight alone."
It's not hard to find recent allegations of universities prioritizing athletes over sexual assault victims.
The University of Oregon recruited Brandon Austin after he was suspended from Providence College for sexual assault, then had to suspend Austin after he was accused of participating in the gang rape of a woman. A lawsuit against the University of Tennessee alleges the school gave special assistance to athletes accused of sexual assault. At Florida State University, athletic staff learned that star quarterback Jameis Winston was accused of sexual assault in January 2013, but decided the encounter was consensual and failed to report it to other university officials for months.
If the NCAA adopted a policy like the kind Adams' petition requests, it wouldn't bar athletic officials from helping their players defend themselves. But Tracy said she thinks it would "deter coaches and administrators from enabling" athletes who commit sexual violence.
"The NCAA banning violent athletes sends a clear message to all athletic departments, athletes and universities that violence will no longer be tolerated," Tracy said. "It puts everyone on notice that they better get their departments in order. It also sends the message that the NCAA cares about its student athletes that are not violent and are just simply pursuing their collegiate athletic dreams. These students should no longer have to endure the scandals brought about by their coaches, administrators and peers."
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Tyler Kingkade is a national reporter, focusing on higher education and sexual violence, and is based in New York. You can reach him at tyler.kingkade@huffingtonpost.com or find him on Twitter: @tylerkingkade.