When covering evolution, teachers should not forget to inform students that some humans still haven’t evolved beyond the Neanderthal stage.

Reference some of the comments underneath the stories online regarding Jessica J. Brown’s civil lawsuit against Kansas University basketball star Sherron Collins over an assault she said took place in an elevator at Jayhawker Towers on May 18, 2007.

Brown, 35, accused Collins of exposing himself and rubbing against her.

The Neanderthal response, naturally, was to pile on the woman and paint the superstar basketball player as the victim of a gold-digging, scorned jersey-chaser.

That’s it, make the accuser so uncomfortable she’ll just go into hiding, maybe move to another state, and the whole thing can be reduced to an unpleasant memory and fodder for the hecklers at KU’s road games.

How sad.

A woman attempts to pursue criminal action and gets nowhere – she then filed a civil lawsuit before the statute of limitations on that ran out – and she is presumed guilty of falsifying an accusation packed with such revolting detail?

Only two people know what happened in that elevator, and one of them decided not to show up in court, which resulted in a judge granting the other a default judgment of more than $75,000.

Journal-World reporter Mike Belt was busy asking questions of those who had some explaining to do.

Follow the hot potato:

Douglas County District Attorney Charles Branson said his office was aware of the woman’s allegations, requested additional investigative work from KU police and had not yet received a complete report. (If Bill Self’s assistant coaches took that long to complete scouting reports of North Carolina and Memphis, KU never would have won a national title.)

KU police spokesman Capt. Schuyler Bailey told Belt that tests were being conducted by the Kansas Bureau of Investigation regarding the complaint against Collins and that the results of those tests had not been passed on to KU police. Remember, the alleged incident took place May 18, 2007.

Back to the enlightened commenters.

One of the Neanderthals made fun of the portion of the lawsuit that reveals the woman “claimed damages for humiliation, severe emotional pain and mental anguish.”

To the person mocking that, I ask: How many times have you been sexually assaulted? If the answer is zero, then that’s the grade you get for credibility on the topic.

Another post offered: “These kids are not perfect but are pretty important to the city of Lawrence. I sure hope that Johnny Law takes this into account, while still doing the right thing in the end.”

Justice is blind, of course, so taking that into account and doing the right thing are mutually exclusive. Wealthy residents do a lot for the city based on the tax revenue they generate. Does that mean “Johnny Law” should cut them a break and throw the book at less fortunate citizens?

This much we must count on: No rug ever has been woven big enough to contain all the dirt that would have to be swept under it to make this all go away.