Reports of sexual offenses up over past years at Coast Guard Academy

New London - The Coast Guard is trying to figure out why there have been more sexual offenses at its academy in the past two years and is making changes at the school to combat the problem.

Six cadets reported being victims of sexual offenses in the past two school years. No cases were reported between June 2007 and May 2009 at the academy, which has a roster of slightly more than 1,000 students.

The Coast Guard's leaders can't say for sure whether the number of sexual assaults is on the rise, or whether they are just now getting a clearer picture of the problem because victims feel more comfortable coming forward.

The servicewide sexual assault prevention and response program is still fairly new. And the Coast Guard's only full-time sexual assault response coordinator was assigned to the academy in May.

"We are learning more," Adm. Robert J. Papp Jr., the Coast Guard commandant, said in a recent interview. "When the processes weren't there, we just didn't know what we didn't know."

Sexual assault is one of the most under-reported crimes. Only about 20 percent of rape and sexual assault cases in the armed forces is reported, the Service Women's Action Network estimates, and men and women at the service academies are even less likely to report rape.

The academy's new sexual assault response coordinator, Peter DiMarzio, is bringing together a team of specialists from within the military and the community to try to break down the barriers that keep people from reporting sexual assault, and he is teaching cadets how to talk to their peers about rape.

Academy Superintendent Rear Adm. Sandra L. Stosz said the academy is trying to promote a "culture of prevention," which she feels is integral to eliminating sexual assault at the academy and across the service.

Papp said sexual assault, harassment, intimidation or any disrespect shown toward a Coast Guardsman by any other Coast Guardsman is a "huge matter."

"Anybody who assaults, offends, attacks a shipmate is not welcome in our service," he said.

Six reports filed

The newest report on sexual harassment and violence, which is due out in February, describes three incidents that happened in the last academic year. There were three involving cadets the year before, and one additional incident.

After two years without any sexual offenses being reported, a female freshman cadet in August 2009 reported that a male cadet entered her room twice in the same night while she was sleeping and touched her inappropriately. The Coast Guard Investigative Service opened a criminal investigation, but the perpetrator was never identified.

Five more cadets filed reports in the 2009-10 and 2010-11 school years, according to academy reports:

• A senior male cadet was accused of sexually assaulting a female classmate in the barracks after they spent an evening out drinking together in February. He was punished administratively for committing sexual misconduct, drinking and using poor judgment; CGIS found that a criminal charge could not be substantiated. The female cadet also was disciplined for drinking and using poor judgment.

• A sophomore female cadet accused a senior male cadet of assaulting her at the academy and a freshman female cadet was sexually assaulted while she was on leave off campus in early 2010. The incident at the academy was consensual, according to CGIS, and both cadets were punished for violating the school's alcohol and sexual contact policies. The cadet who was on leave did not want the matter investigated, and she told officials the perpetrator was not a cadet.

• A faculty member was accused of touching a junior female cadet inappropriately during a ballroom dance class in November 2009, but CGIS found the behavior, while inappropriate, did not constitute sexual assault. The faculty member was reminded of the academy's policies.

• One report this year was found to be a misunderstanding between two freshmen male roommates. They changed rooms.

• A seventh case listed in the reports involves an enlisted Coast Guard member who was participating in an academy program at a preparatory college. He was dismissed from the college and then discharged from the service after he was accused of making unwelcome sexual advances and harassing two women. The report said he also was involved in the underage consumption of alcohol and allegedly assaulted another male student.

• This fall, three female students and one male student studying at the Marion Military Institute in Alabama before transferring to the academy said they were sexually assaulted. These incidents are under investigation.

Interpreting the numbers

Shawn Wren, the Coast Guard's sexual assault prevention and response program manager, believes the increase in reporting is a "direct result" of improvements in her program, since people now understand what sexual assault is and know there's help available.

"That lets them come forward," she said.

The Coast Guard's definition of sexual assault, released in 2009, includes a more extensive explanation than the one used by the Department of Defense. It includes "forcible kissing" and spells out that a current or previous dating relationship does not constitute consent, nor does the way the victim is dressed.

The service considers sexual assault to be intentional sexual contact, characterized by the use of force, threats, intimidation, abuse of authority, or when the victim does not or cannot consent. It includes rape, forcible sodomy and other unwanted sexual contact.

The number of reported sexual assaults Coast Guardwide also increased in 2011. The DOD saw more reports across all military services since its prevention and response program was created in 2005, Wren said, and she expected an initial upswing in the Coast Guard's reporting numbers since the program was created in 2008.

"We'll expect to see another year or so of an uptick possibly, and then it will start dropping," she said. "If we saw a huge surge, certainly I would be looking for trends to make sure it's not something else."

The Pentagon in December said the number of reports at its service academies had risen and cited its efforts to encourage more victims to report an offense as a possible reason.

Some are skeptical. If the increases are attributed to victims' willingness to come forward, how will the academies know when the numbers are up because there are more sexual assaults?

"If I saw the numbers going up I would be concerned," Rear Adm. J. Scott Burhoe, the academy's previous superintendent, who retired in June, said in a recent interview. "And I would be even more diligent than I would've ever been before."

Greg Jacob, the policy director at the Service Women's Action Network, said in a statement that "there's a real danger that the Coast Guard might slip between the cracks in terms of prevention, oversight and accountability" since it falls under the Department of Homeland Security and not the Department of Defense. The network is a human rights organization that advocates for women in the military.

The leadership at the academy, Jacob said, "must make the prevention of sexual assaults and the protection of future Coast Guard officers an institutional priority."

New team formed

The cadets, as future officers, need to start their careers with the right training on sexual assault, Wren said, and the academy is a place where the service can test prevention efforts.

So far DiMarzio, the full-time coordinator, has created a new team that will work together to try to make it easier for victims to come forward. Its members include specialists from the Coast Guard, the Navy, Connecticut College, the Sexual Assault Crisis Center of Eastern Connecticut Inc., and the New London and Groton police departments and victims advocates.

Some victims fear filing a report will jeopardize their standing at the academy or their careers, DiMarzio said. The Coast Guard recently changed its policies so that sexual assault victims in cases that involve alcohol can be disciplined for drinking but it will not go on their record, he said.

DiMarzio said he is fairly confident that the true number of sexual assaults at the academy is higher than official figures show.

He is overseeing the training for about 50 cadet members of Cadets Against Sexual Assault so they can speak with classmates about sexual assault. They are working on posters to raise awareness for distribution during Sexual Assault Awareness Month in April.

CASA members, if confided in by a cadet who was raped, are instructed to take that cadet to a trained victims advocate for counseling. DiMarzio is hoping he can start training cadets this fall so they, too, can be victims advocates.

David Lisak, a leading expert on sexual assault, is scheduled to speak to the junior and senior cadets in April. The freshman and sophomore cadets listened to a presentation on sexual assault this month called "Can I Kiss You?"

'A galvanizing moment'

The only cadet ever court-martialed at the Coast Guard Academy was tried on sexual assault charges in 2006. Webster M. Smith was convicted on extortion, sodomy and indecent-assault charges and acquitted of rape.

Ten people reported being sexually assaulted in the 2006 academic year and a task force investigating the climate at the academy found in early 2007 that the school had lost focus on its mission. The task force also cited a strong link between sexual assault at the academy and alcohol use.

Burhoe took over as the superintendent in January 2007. Many believed he was there to clean up the mess. Burhoe said he would like to think he was tapped for the job because he had a fresh perspective.

He remembers the Smith case as a "galvanizing moment" at the Coast Guard Academy that caused everyone to scrutinize the climate there.

"As a leader, I liked having that pressure," Burhoe said in a recent interview. "It caused you to do what you should've been doing in the first place, the right thing - working toward having the best climate and culture you could possibly have."

Cadets who committed alcohol offenses were punished with the lengthiest marching tours; they had to march back and forth for hours in dress uniform, for everyone to see. Burhoe got rid of an internal survey in which the academy asked cadets about sexual assault, and hired a researcher the other service academies were using.

He encouraged candid discussions about the topic and he lobbied Coast Guard headquarters to create a full-time sexual assault response coordinator position to help keep the issue at the forefront. At that time, the school's coordinator had other duties besides ensuring that victims of sexual assault received care and counseling. The position was left vacant in 2009.

"I do believe that we had created a better environment in Chase Hall than had been there before," Burhoe said, referring to the barracks where cadets live.

Burhoe, who is now the president of Fork Union Military Academy in Virginia, credited the cadets with being determined to make sure their classmates were safe. He said he often spoke with the students about what was acceptable behavior and what was not, and he stressed that he wanted anyone who was assaulted to report it.

About 30 percent of the academy's student body are women - a greater percentage than at the other military academies. Burhoe said he thinks the higher number of women at the academy - "a critical mass" - helps reduce the chances of sexual assault.

"It causes the men to act differently because they are more likely to see the women around them as equals, and not as a limited number that the service decided to bring in," he said.

But Burhoe said he was afraid that after two years without any reported incidents, people would "declare victory and lower their guard." He doesn't believe there was a systemic reason for the increase that happened toward the end of his tenure.

Wren believes the Coast Guard may have a better chance of stopping sexual assault at the school since it is the smallest of the military academies.

"We are smaller, more humanitarian-focused," she said. "We may be able to get our arms around it in a good way and hopefully eliminate this crime from our ranks. That's our goal."

She couldn't say when that might happen.

"I would like to say yesterday," she said.

j.mcdermott@theday.com