While I Was a Student at SUNY Maritime, the Worst Sexual Harassment I Experienced was from a Fellow Cadet Aboard a Commercial Ship. He Was a Kings Pointer.

*This account was submitted to MLAA by the victim, a graduate of SUNY Maritime College.*

Since I followed this account, I’ve been questioning whether or not I should keep my mouth shut or share my experiences with sexual harassment at SUNY Maritime and in the industry. With more pressure being put on SUNY in the past few days I figured it was time to speak up. 

I’m a 2020 graduate. I was sexually harassed when I was a cadet on a commercial shipping vessel by a Kings Pointer. It started small. He would come into my room without knocking, try to hug me and touch me any chance he got. 

About a month into my cadet shipping when I was in the shower he let himself into the bathroom. Despite the fact that I wrapped the curtain around myself and yelled at him to leave, he insisted he had to tell me something important. 

I felt so stupid. I would’ve never thought that I had to lock the bathroom door. My roommate was coming back to the room and we didn’t even have our room key, so I didn’t lock the main door to the room. But I had already spent every day with these cadets for the past month. You knock on a door and if someone doesn’t answer, you leave it alone. I still feel so dumb for leaving that door unlocked. 

I hadn’t yet realized that I really had to protect myself from my fellow cadets. Later that week when we were in port, he got me alone and pinned me up against a wall. He refused to let me go until I kissed him. 

The following night, I was in a bar with some crew members. He came in, sat next to me and would not stop touching me. When he got up to go to the bathroom the bartender asked me if I needed help and if I wanted her to ask him to leave. I said no. 

How could I ever stand up to someone I live next door to? There were multiple other Kings Point cadets on my ship. I could only imagine how they would make my time remaining on that ship absolutely miserable if I had gotten their buddy kicked off for sexual harassment. 

After that night at the bar, a crew member from my department saw what this KP cadet was doing to me and told my supervisor. I would’ve never done this for myself but I’m so thankful for these two men. They stood up for me for the rest of my cadet shipping. They made sure that I rarely had to come into contact with my harasser. 



When I came back I told some of my closest friends. They asked why I didn’t tell the title IX coordinator at SUNY. At the time, the woman who ran our title IX was the laughingstock of the school. I knew other girls that had gone to her. Somehow during the investigative interviews that the coordinator conducted, the whole school ended up knowing every detail of what happened. That is not what I wanted for myself. 

What I’m trying to get at here is that most cadets from SUNY Maritime are not comfortable reporting instances of sexual assault and harassment. Even the staff gossips, there’s no one to keep your story private. I really hope this changes with the new title IX coordinator. 



As for that KP cadet, I never experienced harassment that bad at SUNY. Sure, I had guys creep on me at Paddy’s. Some guys on campus blatantly disrespect women in roles of authority. I’ve seen men that would completely ignore a woman’s presence. But I had never met a man with such complete and utter disregard for a woman’s right to say “no” until I came into contact with a Kings Pointer. 

That’s not to say that SUNY doesn’t have the same issue, both schools need to look long and hard at the cadets that they’re pumping out into the industry. 

Cadets that got away with sexual harassment and assault at an academy go on for the rest of their careers thinking that they can always get away with it. 

I really like what you’re doing with this account. This is a forum that the maritime industry absolutely needs and I’m glad someone got around to airing out all the terrible things that happen. I don’t know if my story will help anyone or anything, but thank you for giving me a place to write about my experience.