Sexual harassment worsens at Coast Guard Academy

Almost half of female cadets at the Coast Guard Academy said they were sexually harassed, and about 1 in 8 women reported experiencing unwanted sexual contact, according to a Pentagon survey released Wednesday.

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

And 12.4% of women said they experienced unwanted sexual contact, up from 8% 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%, up from 1% in 2016.

The percentage of cadets experiencing unwanted sexual contact is the highest since the survey began a decade ago. Officials noted 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.

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.

Most instances of unwanted sexual contact at the Coast Guard Academy involved cadets in the same class year, with 65% of women and 85% of men saying the alleged offender was a classmate, according to the survey. Seventy percent of women and 92% of men didn’t report what happened to authorities, the survey said.

The 30% of women who reported experiencing unwanted sexual contact marked the first time the reporting rate among women climbed above 10%.

The head of the Coast Guard, Adm. Karl Schultz, said in March that unwanted sexual contact throughout the service is “unacceptable.”

“Am I concerned about the 12.4% increase? Absolutely. Because I want to drive sexual assault, unwanted sexual contact to zero in the Coast Guard,” Schultz said. “Will we do that in my lifetime? I don’t know, but we’re going to continue to lean in from a leadership standpoint.”