Coast Guard cadets allege academy failed to prevent sexual assaults

Coast Guard sexual assault lawsuits overview: 

• Who:  The U.S. Coast Guard, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Department of Transportation are facing a total of 13 administrative complaints, all filed in early September.
• Why: The complaints accuse the Coast Guard of failing to prevent sexual assaults against cadets at its Connecticut military academy. 
• Where: The U.S. Coast Guard Academy is located in New London, Connecticut. 

The U.S. Coast Guard was slapped with more than a dozen administrative complaints in September over claims the military branch failed to prevent cadet sexual assaults at its Connecticut military academy. 

The complaints, which also name as defendants the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Department of Transportation, claim the Coast Guard implemented inadequate policies and practices that caused the cadets to be sexually assaulted at the Coast Guard Academy. 

The cadets argue the Coast Guard negligently “created, condoned, and actively concealed” the “rampant nature of sexual harassment and assault at the Academy,” while “knowingly placing” cadets in danger. 

“Specifically, from the Academy’s inception to the present day, the Coast Guard engaged in a pattern of refusing to prevent or otherwise mitigate the danger posed by sexual predators at the Academy,” one of the Coast Guard complaints claims. 

Coast Guard exacerbated sexual assaults by barring cadets from locking doors, complaint says

The Coast Guard was hit with 13 administrative complaints in total, reports Law360. The lawsuits detail sexual assaults allegedly experienced by the cadets, including one assault that occurred in a dorm room and another on a Coast Guard ship. 

The alleged incident in the dorm room also shed light on a Coast Guard rule barring cadets from locking their doors, which the complaint about that incident says exacerbated the assault. 

“I was grateful that (the alleged assailant) was gone and would have locked my door, but it was against Academy policy. After a few minutes passed, my assailant came back inside, closing the door again,” the complaint says. 

The Coast Guard is also accused of sneering at reports of sexual assault, including one alleged instance where a male cadet says he was told by a counselor that “things like that don’t happen to real men” after he says he tried to report his alleged assault. 

In other news involving sexual assault, a judge in California ordered Uber in July to turn over safety report data related to sexual assaults and misconduct committed by drivers against its passengers, as part of an ongoing multidistrict litigation. 

Were you a victim of sexual assault while attending the U.S. Coast Guard Academy or while serving with the U.S. Coast Guard? Let us know in the comments.

The plaintiffs are represented by Christine Dunn and Jillian Seymour of Sanford Heisler Sharp LLP and J. Ryan Melogy of Maritime Legal Solutions PLLC.

Read About More Class Action Lawsuits & Class Action Settlements:

• Apple ignores child sexual abuse material uploaded to iCloud, class action claims
• Uber ordered to turn over sexual assault data reported by passengers
• Utah sues TikTok over claims it profits from child sex trafficking
• Employee’s SpaceX lawsuit claims she was subjected to discrimination, sexual abuse