Reports of unwanted sexual contact up at Coast Guard Academy

Associated Press

Almost half of female cadets at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy said they were sexually harassed, and about one in eight women reported experiencing unwanted sexual contact, according to a Pentagon survey released today.

The anonymous 2018 gender relations survey completed by cadets at the school in New London, Connecticut, shows that 45 percent of women and 17 percent of men said they experienced sexual harassment, up from 36 percent and 11 percent, respectively, in 2016.

And 12.4 percent of women said they experienced unwanted sexual contact, up from 8 percent in 2016.

The percentage of men saying they experienced unwanted sexual contact, including sexual assault, attempted sexual assault and unwanted sexual touching, was 3.6 percent, up from 1 percent in 2016.

The percentage of cadets experiencing unwanted sexual contact is the highest since the survey began a decade ago. Officials noted that the increases could at least partially reflect a greater willingness to report misconduct as a result of the Coast Guard's focus on the problem and new training programs.

The survey, conducted every two years, comes after an already tough year for the Coast Guard Academy. Lawmakers have criticized its handling of racial discrimination and harassment, and the college is the subject of a congressional investigation into harassment, bullying and discrimination against minority cadets.

All the U.S. military academies are "facing a sexual assault crisis, and we are asleep at the wheel," Rep. Jackie Speier, a California Democrat, said in June. She is trying to create a four-year pilot program for independent prosecutorial review of all sexual assault reports at the academies.