Female Kings Point Cadet Sexually Assaulted by Member of Masters, Mates, & Pilots during Sea Year.

*This story was originally reported in the Washington Post and are direct quotes from the victim, a member of the USMMA class of 2013, that were contained in a video accompanying the article.

“As soon as we were taking a taxi back to the ship, alone, the Chief Mate started saying all these things to me about how attracted he was to me. How we had such a good time and I should be his girlfriend and everything. And then he started forcing himself on me in the taxi and I kept yelling ‘No, stop, get away from me’ and he, like, pushed me up against the side of the taxi and put his hands down my clothes and grabbed my chin and made me kiss him and everything.

“I remember running back to the ship and locking my door. I ended up writing the Chief Mate a note saying that I was really hurt by what he did, that I felt very violated, that he had violated my trust. And I left the note on his desk. A couple days later he slipped a note under my door saying “Sorry, have a nice summer,” and he slipped a couple hundred dollars in an envelope and and put it under my door.

“And I remember coming back to school and feeling really weird about myself and feeling kinda depressed, and I really lost interest in my school work, my grades plummeted...

“You feel humiliated, and the more you try to forget about it and push it to the back of your mind, the worse you feel about it. I’m tired of people saying this doesn’t happen, or that I have to suck it up and act like a man.
—Erika Lawson, USMMA Class of 2013

Editor’s Note: Erika Lawson told the Washington Post that she had been afraid to report the assault while a crew member aboard the ship. It’s easy to understand why she would be afraid. Lawson was 19 years old and she was in Saipan, 7,800 miles from the her school, the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy. Her Chief Mate had the support of the Captain, his labor union, the shipping company, and the other members of the crew. Lawson told the Post that she eventually sought counseling through the USMMA to help her cope with the trauma.

Nothing happened to this Chief Mate, who was a member of the International Organization of Masters, Mates & Pilots. Captain Eugene Albert, the man who ran the Sea Year program for 15 years and was responsible for keeping Lawson safe, knew the name of the ship and the identity of the Chief Mate who sexually assaulted her, yet he never attempted to take legal action against the mariner or report the incident to the U.S. Coast Guard.

In fact, Captain Eugene Albert continued and continues to send USMMA cadets out to this man's ship. If you are a female cadet, you might be unlucky enough to be sent to his ship.