*This account was submitted to MLAA by the victim, a graduate of SUNY Maritime Academy, who wishes to remain anonymous.*
I went to SUNY Maritime because my dream was to get a deck license and eventually become the captain of a ship. I eventually made it through Maritime, but I left that school traumatized and humiliated. I’m sharing my story because I want people to know what women go through there, and I want them to know that my story is not that unusual, and is just a tiny example of what’s happening at the school. At the end of my first year I went on the SST14 training cruise.
One day I was sitting at one of those small desks taking a Rules of the Road exam on the training ship. I had my cell phone wedged between my thighs to hold it while I took the exam.
One of the mates who was administering the exam was one of those old captains who had come out of retirement to go on the cruise. I don’t remember his name but he had a creeper ‘stache and was so old he’s probably dead by now.
He was walking up and down the rows, and when he came to me he leaned down to my ear and whispered in my ear “I wish my head was where that phone is right now.” What the fuck? I went and reported it to the Deputy Commandant, a woman named Captain Hanft.
She told me that if I didn’t want negative attention from the mates on the training ship, then I shouldn’t wear tight khaki pants. That’s a direct quote. And she told me there was nothing she could do.
During SST15 we had a reg officer that would walk into female berthing holds on the ship without knocking and lift spank blankets with female cadets sleeping in them. I reported this to Chief Testor and the response I got for reporting this was that there was no proof, and so there was nothing the reg staff could do about it.
This same reg officer would deliberately roam the halls listening outside students rooms and jiggle door handles to trick students into opening their doors to get them in trouble.
These incidents of reporting things and having nothing happened were a big part of what led to me not reporting being sexually assaulted on campus.
I didn’t report the assault to the school because I was absolutely terrified of being found at fault and getting in trouble. And after seeing the measures the school takes to protect their staff and the school with lawyers, anyone would be scared to come forward.
The man who assaulted me is now an engineer with MEBA and he’s floating around somewhere out there with cadets on his ship, I’m sure. Our dean of students Ms. Delgado (no longer employed) recommended I change schools and said maybe the maritime industry wasn’t for me.
Captain Hanft and Captain Borges were both women in power who really fucked me over many times. It is difficult to understand.
Eventually all of the trauma from the assault and stress from all the bullshit the school was putting me through for no reason led to me having panic attacks that were so bad I had to be hospitalized. While I was in the hospital the school never even reached out to me. On the SST17, which was my senior cruise, there was a licensed engineer aboard who was constantly making comments about my body and he would constantly try to get me to come into his room or to go out with him in port.
He always made sexual gestures at me and made countless comments about my body. It was disgusting. In port he would come up to me and try to get me to go off places with him. He was sexually harassing me, so I reported it to Captain Borges.
She said that because l had no proof, there was nothing she could do about it, and she suggested I stop wearing shorts and stop wearing makeup to make the harassment stop. I can go on forever about the shit that school put me through, but it eventually led me to believe that I did not have a voice and left me feeling completely helpless and at times hopeless.
The environment at the school was so toxic that students had to start recording their encounters with regimental staff to protect themselves. Like I said earlier, I left that school seriously traumatized and I felt humiliated. I think the main problem is with the regimental staff the school hires and the amount of authority they are given.
I would recommend that if you go to SUNY you need to know your rights as a student. Record everything with your phone and keep written accounts of everything that happens. Today I’m sailing 2nd Mate on my license, moving up in my career, and doing my thing. I’m not sure if this will help anyone or give someone courage to come forth, but I just felt the need to share. Thanks for reading.
5 Comments
It’s entirely regrettable that you had to be subjected to this disgraceful harassment on so many levels. You are amzaingly strong, and resilient to continue to pursue your career and succeed anyway! You did nothing to attract such abhorrent behavior, and are certainly NOT to BLAME! “PTSD” or “Panic Attacks’ are MEDICAL issues (Physiological Dysregulation of the Adrenaline Response, NOT PHSYCOLOGICAL at all! Look up “NMH” = Neurally Mediated Hypotension – might sue them for their culpability in causing this Medical Condition!!!! I’m an ADVOCATE thereof, you can contact me at: mrst2222…. @… gmail… com).
My son attended SUNY Maritime and would never have stood for any of his classmates being treated thusly! Please know, as a woman in a man’s field (AI), & a man’s industry (Wall Street) I was harassed, hazed, etc.… In my experience, the only way to counter is to have witnesses willing to corroborate, else proof via recordings &/or video. I did report a sexual threat, but they tried to fire me too… even after it was corroborated by a reliable co-worker! So, there’s a concerted ‘blame the victim’ theme still to avoid culpability. That the upper ranks at SUNY MARITIME did NOT help you, no less protect you, as you deserved is a total disgrace… they should be drummed out of the ‘officers corp’ indeed! There’s no date on this post… but it might be helpful to other women students to come, to report this more definitively, even anonymously.
Further, I will share that they were dastardly when he attended, in that he was ‘under-age’ (the law was 21 in NYC) at 17 when he attended, and they had to have shaved heads as 1st year students, so don’t tell me they didn’t know he should have been ‘carded’ to drink? I went to the Commandant and advised him my son was NOT to be offered alcohol, as he was obviously well underage… he said he was in AA, as I shared I was in Al-Anon (my DH is NOT my ‘Qualifier’ so I’m public about it)! Did they stop, NO! The first two weeks of School, was the ‘initiation’… I’d bought my son ALL the items on ‘the list’ as NEW. He called before he came home, saying he had to throw out all his new clothing, including jeans that were $40… I said OH NO, WHY? Seems they had the freshmen crawl thru the grass with Goose Dung abundant, and it got all over his clothes! It took me hours & hours of scrubbing them with strong stain removers to try to get the stains out, even post washing them repeatedly! When I registered my chagrin in person, I was told my son was “NOT SUNY Maritime Material”. Oh REALLY? They just do NOT want anyone who dares ‘complain’!!!!! All my son ever wanted was to go to Military School, his Father is 20 years retired AF & my son grew up on Military Bases all over the world, and via me, he had more fatigue types than his father!
My son is now a Veteran of SIX YEARS as a SPECIAL FORCES OPERATOR… I’ll bet he could ‘take down’ any of their officers with his bare hands. He is a HERO many, many, many times over… just recently rescuing his Translator & wife & 2 toddlers almost single handedly from A… and another lady who gave birth to a baby girl upon his having rescued her to another country.
Oh, when he was so young, SUNY Maritime took advantage & kept accepting my tuition money for FIVE YEARS while he was ‘flunking’ most of his courses, as they allowed him to be on the phone with an inappropriate amoratta all night so he wasn’t sleeping or getting his school work done… FIVE YEARS, without mentioning it.. they just raked in the dough. I only found out about it when we had an estrangement, and I got his phone records (it was in my name)… REALLY!!!! What an outfit indeed!!!!! They they falsely accused me of ‘stealing’ his drill uniform, when he could have taken it (he was not barred from our home, only his unacceptable behaviors were (the drinking had messed him up horridly), and he at anytime also could have arranged to pick it up. They encouraged him to lie. Nasties to the core. Then he had to go back to finish his degree & a masters after his Military Service – and charged him all over again for school tuition. How disgraceful at that?
Something absolutely needs to be done about this institutional toxicity! Mrs. T
This is very sad.
As a 2nd class cadet, I went to get help because of pains in my stomach. I was told it was no issue, three days later I was on an operating table.
When I returned I was told I could take the semester exams, if I did not pass them, I was to come back next year. Also they stated they would not report me to the draft board if I needed to leave.
This is another example, no feeling etc.
I had a full scholarship for my 2nd class year and was in the top 10% of the class of 70.
I give this as an example of other wrongs done at SUNY MARITIME.
There were other wrongs, but as a cadet, you suck it up, because you had to be tough.
All in all the SUNY MARITIME COLLEGE, is a excellent school. It is sad that things like this happens, when they have graduated so many.
Remember there are many situations that happen, watch TV, ITS JUST Not happening at Maritime.
This is the truth!! I was on those cruises and harassed by the same “reg officer” who would lift blankets and shake door handles. We lived in a constant state of worry & fear of getting in trouble. That school covers everything up. Get out and get away as fast as you can.
Recently on cruise I had an officer ask me if I was a lesbian during watch. He then proceeded to ask me much more personal questions like if I had ever gotten with a man or wanted to be with a man and more.
You should have dropped a wrench on their heads or yelled ONE HAND. At risk of being said to ‘fault the victim’, their asses should have been kicked. If the catholic church’s priests can be charged, even dead, 50+ years after the fact then SUNY Maritime alumni that suffered what this woman has should be able to be indicted. I was on ’80 cruise and gave Q’s to both male and female 1/C and by way of authentication stood watched with ‘Big Mac’. Keelhaul the bastards – male or female. An older Domer