I was Raped at Kings Point.
* This story was submitted to MLAA by the victim, a graduate of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy *
One night while I was a student at Kings Point, I went to a party in a sports team locker room with a couple of girlfriends. We were drinking heavily. I remember being in the locker room and then the next thing I remember is waking up completely naked in someone’s bed on the other side of campus.
I have no recollection of what happened in the room until I woke up. I hurriedly made an excuse to leave and went back to my room. I never said anything to anyone about it because my entire time at school I had been told things like “if a girl is drinking it’s just as much her fault as the guy’s” or “if you can’t remember what happened how do you know you didn’t say you wanted it.”
I didn’t want to be made out to look like a liar. For a very long time I thought it was my fault. That I was the one who did something wrong.
A few years later, I ran into another Midshipman from a different class and sea split in a bar in a foreign country. We were chatting and I realized that the last time we saw each other was that night in the locker room. He said to me “You got so drunk that night you couldn’t even walk. We carried you back to your room and had to put you in bed.”
I never asked any more questions. All I could think of and wonder is, “if I was carried back to my room and put in my bed, how did that guy get me into his bed naked?” Did he do it alone? Did he have help? I never said anything because at that point I believed it was too late. The guy whose bed I woke up in told people that we hooked up, but who knows what that could mean. He definitely took advantage of me, and the event still haunts me.
After Kings Point I got married, and I’ve never even told my husband about what happened. I’m still too embarrassed. I’m telling this story because I just hope future KP women will have a better experience than I had.
I Was Raped On A Military Sealift Command Ship During My USMMA Sea Year. Speaking With A Therapist Eventually Gave Me The Mental & Emotional Clarity I Needed To Forgive Myself.
*This account was submitted to MLAA by the victim, a graduate of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy*
I'd like to remain anonymous. I went to KP and during Sea Year I was raped by a military guy on a Military Sealift Command ship. I won't go into graphic details, but when I reported it to his Senior Chief, he told me to shut up about it because “it’s all speculative.” After he raped me, they moved my rapist to my watch, and as soon as we pulled into port my room was moved to be next to his.
During my senior year at KP I ended up reporting it anonymously to the SAPR. I did not take my case any further because I didn’t think anyone would believe me. I had been discredited for reporting an assault before when I was 17 years old, and then again when I was a KP cadet. I just didn’t think that anyone would believe me.
I was so against “victimizing” myself (which is another person's rhetoric and a word that is also toxic) until I skipped a mandatory sexual assault assembly one day at Kings Point. I found these seminars to be so triggering that I felt like I had no choice but to avoid them.
When one of my female CO’s noticed I was intentionally skipping the mandatory sexual assault trainings, instead of putting me on restriction, she encouraged me to seek help. She told me about things she had learned from a speaker who had come to campus. This speaker had talked about the chemical occurrences that happen within a rape victims’ mind. That conversation changed my life.
She taught me that there isn't only a fight or flight reaction. There's another possible reaction, which is to “freeze.” When you freeze, your brain shuts down any immediate decision making ability because it cannot find the best solution. This insight helped me come to terms with how I had reacted to my assault.
When you are the victim of a sexual assault, the worst thing you can say to yourself is “why didn't I just walk away, or why did I drink, or why didn’t I say something or push him off of me?” Or to tell yourself “It’s my fault.” It’s not your fault. Knowing that it was actually chemicals in my brain reacting to a traumatic situation that caused me to freeze was a profound breakthrough for me. This breakthrough allowed me to quit blaming myself.
Speaking with a professional and telling my story allowed me the mental and emotional clarity I needed to forgive myself and realize it was not my fault. There is strength in vulnerability and in telling your story. It is so hard to relive your trauma, but reporting can prevent another person from being assaulted. So I encourage all victims of sexual assault to seek self help and to report your assaulter. You are not an island. You are not alone.
The worst thing you can do after being assaulted is become your own enemy. Don’t listen to the people who will try to discredit you. People will tell you that it would not have happened if you weren't so nice. They will say that you would have been safe if you had covered up. But my overall message is to speak with someone. Don't let the bad days win. But also be proactive. Keep the dialogue alive.
After my anonymous reporting I started this “female mentorship program” within First Company for the younger female midshipman. It provided a space where we could have an open dialogue where we, as upperclassmen, had the opportunity to share our stories and to give underclassmen a realistic take on sea year, instead of the “dress like a man and maybe you won't get raped” crap we were all spoon fed by the Department of Shipboard Training. I have no idea if that program is still running in First Company or anywhere at Kings Point, but it would be interesting to see if some of your Midshipman followers can let us know if something similar still exists.
I've never met a woman in this industry who doesn’t have a story. A female Chief Mate I sailed with had to stop sailing for 6 years because of everything she endured working in this industry. She got her license in 93. I never asked for the specifics. It’s so fucking sad. She worked so hard to pioneer this industry just to be brutalized and traumatized by her own community. She is a veteran and true patriot. I idolize her for her bravery. We need to do better.
After Kings Point I Was Excited About My Career as a Marine Engineer. But Sexual Discrimination & Lack of Support Forced Me Out of the Industry. It’s Sad, and I Miss It.
*This story was submitted to MLAA by the victim, a graduate of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy*
I made it through 4 years of KP, passed my Coast Guard license exams, and graduated with an engineering degree and a 3rd Engineer’s license. After graduation I was excited to start my career as a marine engineer. I went to work in the offshore oil industry, and it did not take long for my excitement to turn into something very different. On my first day aboard as a licensed officer I was asked why a woman would want to work in this industry and my supervisor told me I should have gotten an office job. In my short offshore career, I was lucky enough to never have a crew member sexually assault me, but I was drown with sexual discrimination.
I was told women who wore leggings in the gym were asking to be sexually harassed, I was told women can’t do the job because they aren’t as strong as men, and I was told I’m always going to be behind because “I didn’t grow up working on cars with my dad.” I was ignored during meetings, was given “mechanical tests” that no man was ever required to take, and my work was always under a microscope. When new male 3rd Engineers came onboard they never had to go do work alone to “prove they can do it” like I had to (a situation that continued for a year).
These men had no reason to assume these stereotypes about me. I never told them if I did or didn’t work on cars with my dad, they just assumed that. Not once did they ask me how much I could bench press, they just assumed I wasn’t strong. And I never said that I wished I had taken an easier career path. I never spoke up or told anyone about the sexual discrimination I was enduring because I didn’t want to use the “girl card,” aka, “standing up for yourself and making people accountable for their actions,” and I didn’t want to be blacklisted.
One of the saddest parts of my experience was that all of the men in my department were young. The oldest was 36, so when I joined I thought they wouldn’t be as “old school” and I wouldn’t have issues. But I was wrong. During turnover my boss would talk to the new guys and not even look at me. I even had other guys in the department come to me and say, “damn he (the 1st Engineer) doesn’t even look at you” or “wow, what he just said was messed up.” I never turned down work and I think I had a good attitude. Sometimes things would get under my skin, like the comments about women wearing yoga pants asking for it, and I would snap back a bit to let them know they were being ignorant. But I tried to work hard and to fit in.
I worked offshore for 4.5 years after graduating from KP, and was at my last company for a year and a half. I was about to finish my sign offs to sit for my 1st Assistant Engineer exams, but I had zero support from my department and in the end it was enough to make me want to leave the industry. 3 months ago I quit and moved shoreside.
I loved working at sea, loved getting dirty and loved the satisfaction I felt after I fixed something. I really miss it, and it makes me sad. I feel like less of a marine engineer because I came shoreside and I hate that I let that situation turn me cold and make me decide to leave the industry. But I made the decision for my mental health and I know it was the right choice. Maybe I’ll go back one day, but if not I know that what I went through has lit a fire in me and I want to help anyone and everyone who has gone through a similar battle.
Most other girls I’ve talked to had similar experiences to mine where they just weren’t taken seriously in the industry and no amount of work could change mens’ minds. The lack of respect went as far as sexual harassment in some cases, but luckily I never faced that. I’d say what I faced was sexual discrimination. The sad part is there were good times to be had and a lot of great people out there, it just sucks the people who were supposed to have my back—the people in my department—didn’t.
The HR person from my last job recently reached out to me to ask some questions about why I left, and I’m not even sure if I should mention the hurtful comments from my superiors or not. I find myself being like “well I know they’re good people and they have families and I don’t want to get them fired since I’m out of there now.”
But I really don’t want any other women to go through what I went through. Recently I heard from a woman engineer who started on there recently, and after one week onboard she has already confided in me that she is receiving the same treatment I received. I had to tell her to just keep her head up.
I Was Sexually Harassed on the SUNY Maritime Training Ship
*This story was submitted to MLAA by the victim, a graduate of SUNY Maritime Academy*
I’m a graduate of SUNY Maritime and I was sexually harassed by a student who later came back to be a watch-standing engineer my senior sea term.
During my freshman sea term, there was this senior in my work/watch group who would come up to me randomly and grab ahold of my hand and ask if I had a boyfriend (I did). When I’d try to get out of his grip, he’d just hold me tighter.
He did this repeatedly while continuing to say things like “I can be your boyfriend” and “your boyfriend isn’t here so he wouldn’t know.” I had another girl tell me that it was nothing and “he does that to all the girls” which is disturbing.
The most haunting thing happened when I was assigned to his work group for the day. We were in one of the large berthing holds waiting for a licensed engineer with several underclassmen, and he was following me around the hold. I felt so uncomfortable that I ran to stand with one of my friends.
He told one of the guys that “this is how you do it, you tire them out so then you can mount them.” I felt sick. Who says that to a person? My friend threatened him to stay away from me.
On our last watch rotation, he came up and took a picture of me. Just me. He said that he wanted to remember me.
I didn’t report it because I didn’t want to be “that girl.” The guys at Maritime already spread so many rumors about the girls on the ship (they are definitely the bigger gossipers), and I didn’t want to become another one of them. That’s what the atmosphere of a training ship does to a person. It silences you.
When my senior sea term came, my harasser was back on the training ship as a 3A/E watch-stander. I was so anxious to be stuck on watch with him. One night in one of our first ports, I had been out drinking with some of my guy friends, and he came up to our group and put his arm around my shoulders, pulling me close.
I can’t even remember what he said, because I was so anxious. But one of the guys I was with said something about “that guy being creepy.” Because I had been drinking I said “try being a freshman while he threatened to ‘mount’ you.’”
I ended up telling the rest of my story and explaining to them how uncomfortable he made me on watch. The guys were all surprised that I said anything to them, but I was so much luckier than most girls in the maritime industry. Two of the guys from that night were in my watch group, and any time my harasser approached me alone, one of them would make an excuse to come over. They believed me, and I was never left alone with him on watch again.
I’m forever grateful to those guys for helping me feel safer in that engine room. Girls aren’t usually that lucky. I’m also so lucky that I wasn’t assaulted and just harassed, which is such a sad thing to say.
And I did make moves to prevent him from being re-hired for another sea term. I reported to Captain Smith (Commandant at the time) that he was incompetent. It becomes a safety issue when the 1A/E relies on you and the other unlicensed 1st class cadets to manage the plant because the licensed watchstander doesn’t know what he’s doing.
I was lucky to have an excuse besides his harassment to make sure he doesn’t have another opportunity to prey on female students. Schools are more likely to believe you if you claim that your engineer is incompetent than if you tell them that you were sexually harassed.
That’s a problem.
I Was Discriminated Against at Vane Brothers and Fired Because I was a Woman. They Never Gave Me a Fair Chance, And When I Complained to HR, I Was Told They Didn’t Care.
* This story was submitted to MLAA by the victim *
My story isn’t that crazy, but I did lose a job on a tug over one guy that had it out against women in the industry, so I thought I would share it.
I got a job with Vane Brothers, and then went down to Baltimore for an employee orientation. I showed up to the Vane Brothers office wearing what I thought was professional attire, like what I would wear for an interview. I had on black dress pants and a blouse.
As soon as I arrived the hiring manager pulled me into his office and told me that what I was wearing was inappropriate and that I was not allowed to dress like that if I expected to work on tugs.
I wasn’t even joining the tug that day as we were just in the office for the day doing paperwork.
Once I got out to my tug the problems continued. During one of my hitches the Captain called me up to the bridge and told me that women don’t belong on tugs. We worked in the harbor making and breaking tows, and he said that the work is too hard for a “girl.”
But the male deckhand that I was working and training with said that I was picking up throwing line better than most of the men he had worked with and trained, and he told me he was very impressed with my work.
The captain really never saw me work, so he had no idea what I was capable of doing. He just didn’t want a woman on his boat.
After that hitch the Captain called Vane Brothers HR, and then I got a call from them and they fired me. I was still in my training period, so even if I wasn’t picking the job up quickly enough I should have at least been given a chance to learn and improve.
When I told HR that the Captain told me to my face that women don’t belong on tugs the HR person said that they didn’t care, and that they took his word over mine.
Kings Point Must Change
Although I am grateful for the life I now have, which is largely due to graduating from Kings Point, my four-year experience at the Academy was miserable. Sexual harassment, sexual assault, rape, and bullying are huge issues at Kings Point. Verbal and physical assaults are happening regularly, and the reporting system is not designed to protect the victim. This needs to change and this needs to change now.
By Chelsea Tapper, USMMA Class of 2014
One evening during my plebe (freshman) year at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, a female first classman (senior) came to my room and asked me if I had been “sleeping around.” She was a friend, an ally, my teammate on both the Academy’s cross country and softball teams, and someone I trusted. I told her that I was not “sleeping around,” and she believed me.
The truth was that I was sleeping with one second classman (junior), and he was the only person I had slept with at Kings Point. Our relationship was technically in violation of the Academy’s rules against “fraternization,” which prohibit relationships between plebes and upper classmen, but we were never caught. He was one of the good guys at Kings Point, someone who never talked about our relationship and kept it secret for the protection of both us.
When I told my friend I was not sleeping around, she pulled out a black Sharpie marker and took me into several of the male bathrooms where she showed me graffiti written in permanent marker that said “I tapped Tapper.” My friend and I used her marker to mark over these sick messages. “I tapped Tapper” was written in countless male stalls on the entire campus, including in the academic buildings, where teachers and other Academy employees could see.
One night I asked a male classmate to escort me around the campus, and we went into male stalls all over the Academy where I again used a marker to mark over the sickening graffiti. We visited every single male stall on campus that night.
I believe there was more than one person behind this coordinated campaign of character assassination. However, I suspect it was instigated by the man who had been subjecting me to a humiliating pattern of sexual harassment and sexual assault, and he was ruining my reputation because I had attempted to report him to Academy officials.
D, the man who sexually assaulted me, was a first classman, my teammate on the cross country team and, unfortunately, also in Fifth Company with me. At practices, D would always look for opportunities to try to talk to me one-on-one. He was always showing off in front of me, trying to make himself seem way cooler than he actually was, and he would ask me endless questions about myself.
Initially, I did not have a problem with his behavior, but I soon began to realize that he was trying to pursue a physical relationship with me. But I had no interest in any kind of relationship with D. When I began making it clear to him that I had no interest in him, he became mean and abusive and cruel. He came off like the kind of man who cannot handle the word “No,” especially when it came from a female plebe.
At first it was verbal harassment, but his behavior quickly escalated beyond verbal harassment to physical intimidation and assault. One day during Cross Country practice, our team was in the weight room and I was put in D’s group. I was bench pressing under a squat rack, and D was supposed to be standing behind me and spotting me. He instead decided that was the perfect time to reach up above the bench, grab the pull-up bar at the top of the squat rack, and start doing pull ups directly over my face. Every time his arms were fully extended, his crotch lowered down only inches from my face. I stopped benching, stood up, and looked around the weight room in shock. No one noticed, and he was getting away with this behavior in a room full of people.
After that incident, I began to intentionally keep my distance from D, which is difficult at a small school like Kings Point, especially when we were both on the cross country team and both living in the same company. At Kings Point plebes are generally not allowed to leave the campus, and it feels like a minimum security prison. To enforce these regulations, the administration sends midshipmen officers around at night to make sure that no one has left on unapproved liberty. Kings Point actually allowed male students to enter the bedrooms of women late at night to check to see if they were in their beds or not. This is what Kings Point thought was normal and acceptable.
D was a midshipman officer, and one night he was in charge of performing bunk checks for our company. It was around midnight, and my two roommates and I were in our respective beds, simply talking and having a good time. We could hear D coming around doing bunk checks, and we could hear him knocking on every door before entering, but when D came to our room he very aggressively kicked our door. The noise was terrifying because it was completely unexpected. We were all awake, but once he opened the door and came inside we pretended to be asleep. D entered the room and approached my roommate’s bed. When he reached her bed he put his face within two feet of her and just stared at her without saying anything. This incident showed how willing he was to abuse the power this Academy gave him.
Around this time, we had an out of town Cross Country meet, and I had to ride to and from the meet on the same bus with D. After the meet our team was getting back on the bus, and D was sitting near the front of the bus. As I entered the bus and attempted to walk past his seat towards the back of the bus, D reached out and grabbed my left hand, pulled my hand down and forcefully placed it on his penis. He pulled my arm with such force that I actually fell down to the ground. I was in shock, not only because he did something disgusting to me again, but because he did it in another public place with people all around us.
This was the last straw for me. I eventually went to the Fifth Company’s Company Officer, CDR David Mund, and told him about all of the things D had done to me. Commander Mund did nothing to help me. I told other “higher ups” at the Academy, but no one believed me, no one cared, and no one did a single thing about it.
I did not tell a single family member or friend outside of Kings Point about any of this. My mom believed Kings Point was the best thing ever to happen to me, and I did not want her opinion of Kings Point to be tarnished. I also did not want my family members and friends to worry about me and my safety while I was in college. I did not want to be a burden on anyone. Even though I was young, I was an extremely independent person and I believed I could handle the situation on my own.
As I asked around trying to get someone at the school to help me, someone told me that the Company Officer of First Company, an Academy official named LCDR Eddie Ragin, believed female accusations of sexual assault and would protect women, but always with strings attached. I did not care about the strings. I needed to get away from D and out of Fifth Company where he had me trapped. I went to speak with LCDR Ragin, and he believed me. LCDR Ragin asked me to write up a report listing out all of the incidents of sexual harassment and assault involving D, which I did. LCDR Ragin then maneuvered to have me removed from Fifth Company and transferred into First Company, the company he was in charge of.
When I transferred out of Fifth Company, D knew something was up. Somehow, he found out about the incident report I was putting together at the request of LCDR Ragin, and he convinced K, my female Team Leader and teammate, to get a copy of it for him. K came to me and asked me for a copy of the incident report. She told me that she wanted to help me with my situation and that she would proofread the statement for me. Naively, I gave her a copy. I had no idea that was a lie. I had no idea she would give that copy to D. I thought she was a friend who wanted to help me.
I had also told both of my Cross Country coaches about what D was doing to me. The two coaches scheduled a meeting for the four of us to meet and talk things through. Even though D was the perpetrator, the coaches empowered him by allowing him to notify me via email about when and where the meeting would take place.
I knew the meeting would take place soon, but I did not know exactly when, so for days I was constantly checking my email. On the day of the meeting, I had to muster for lunch, so I checked my email on my laptop in my room right before lunch muster. There were no new emails. When I arrived in Delano Hall for lunch, I saw D leaving Delano without eating. I knew that something was up. I went back to my room as quickly as possible to check my email again.
Since I was a plebe, I had to “square” my way back to my room. Plebes were required to walk six inches away from the starboard bulkhead at all times, and to always “give way” to upperclassmen. When I came to a corner where two walls met, I had to “square the corner,” by coming to the position of attention before pivoting both feet 90 degrees in the direction of the turn. A gradual, rounded turn across the middle of the hallway like a normal human, or like an upperclassman, was not permitted.
This is how much power I had. I was nothing, so I just squared my way back to my room as quickly as I could, checked my email, and of course, there was the email from D regarding the meeting that I was now already ten minutes late for. He had purposely sent the email while I was at lunch muster, only minutes before the scheduled time, knowing I would not check my email again until after lunch, which would be at least 30 minutes later.
So off I went, squaring my little plebe self to the coaches’ office as quickly as I could. When I arrived, I was 20 minutes late. I stupidly never told the coaches why I was late. I simply played along with D’s game. At this meeting I learned that my “friend” K, who had offered to help me with the report, had actually given a copy of my report to D. He had been able to use this report to prepare a flawless explanation for every single incident I had written about. The meeting went absolutely nowhere, and nothing was done. The coaches did not believe me, and D got away with it all.
Before this meeting, a female first classman had asked me if I wanted her to attend the meeting with me, and I will forever regret telling her no. I truly believe things would have ended differently if she had been there because she knew everything that D had put me through, and she believed and supported me. Her presence at the meeting would have given me the extra confidence I needed to speak up for myself against D. I was an independent person, so I never thought I needed people standing behind me. I naively believed that the truth was enough.
After the meeting, I quit the Cross Country team, but the Head Coach, Gregory Lott, guilted me into returning by telling me that the team needed me—a female body—so that the team could meet the gender diversity numbers required to compete in athletic events. I am an extremely loyal person and I hate disappointing others, so I returned to the team, but nothing about the situation improved. In fact, things only got worse.
During the second Regimental rotation, D was promoted to Fifth Company Commander, the midshipman leader of an entire company. He was approved for that position by CDR Mund, the man to whom I originally reported D’s behavior. He apparently did not think what he had done to me disqualified D from becoming a high ranking midshipman officer.
Once D gained more power, he was determined to use his power to get revenge on me for having the audacity and strength to report him. One of the things he did was instruct his friends and fellow Regimental officers to file bogus regimental disciplinary reports against me. I was “stuck” (put on disciplinary report) with a Class One for disrespecting a midshipman officer (D’s friend), and I was stuck on another occasion with a Class One for disobeying another midshipman officer (also D’s friend). Each of these sticks would at a minimum have required me to be restricted to the Academy for 12 weeks and to complete 100 hours of extra duty, and cumulatively they had the potential to get me kicked out of the school. These sticks were completely and utterly fabricated by men abusing the power the Academy had given them to harass and destroy me.
Thankfully, LCDR Ragin was my Company Officer and he knew that the sticks were bogus. He made these sticks go away, but without him I would have been sunk. D had set off on a coordinated campaign to destroy my reputation and my life. D and his minions harassed me and spread malicious and completely false rumors about me, and there was nothing I could do about it.
Our plebe class was “recognized” in April 2011 as members of the regiment, and after recognition the fraternization rule was no longer enforced. I began dating a first classman and he took me on the “Senior Cruise,” a major event for midshipmen at the end of their last year at the Academy. After the cruise we went to a bar in Manhattan. I was 19 years old at the time. In New York City, you are legally allowed to enter a bar under the age of 21 as long as that bar serves food, which this bar did. When we got into the bar, I saw D was also there. I told my then boyfriend that I did not want to be around D and that I wanted to leave, but he refused to leave.
Even though the seniors were days away from graduating, I knew D would do anything and everything in his power to try to screw me over one last time with a Class One alcohol offense. Therefore, I had everyone in my group take a sip of my drink to confirm it was just Pepsi and that I was not drinking alcohol. D walked past me once at the bar and I kept my eye on him the whole time. Then I saw him walk past me again. I took my eye off of him for a second, and when I did, he dumped an entire glass of beer on my face. There were many witnesses to this incident. I was enraged, and I tried to go after him, but one of the females I was present with held me back. I left the bar and called my brother who lived in Brooklyn at the time. My brother arrived and then drove me back to Kings Point. My dress was soaked and reeked of beer.
D had publicly humiliated me and assaulted me one final time and his destruction of my reputation was permanent. Even though I did not sleep around, everyone thought I did because of D’s slander, and that tarnished reputation would follow me through my four years at Kings Point.
After Plebe year I was assigned to a ship and began my Sea Year. I had a great Sea Year and I loved every second of it. I was on four ships as both a deck and an engine cadet, and the only inappropriate thing that happened to me was when an older unlicensed male crewmember slid a note under my door. The note said he had noticed me and would like to get to know me more, and asked if he could take me out when we got to port. I told him I was not interested, and he was offended, but he left me alone.
My sea year experience was definitely better for me personally than being at Kings Point. However, I know of horror stories from females who had a much worse time out at sea than at Kings Point. It is unfortunately simply the luck of the draw.
After I finished my sea time I returned to the Academy for my senior year and that year turned out to be my worst year at Kings Point. There was a female classmate who was a bully and she did not like me. She came from a family of prominent Kings Pointers and I supposed she believed she was special, or needed someone to put down to make herself feel special. During my senior year she began to bully me for no other reason than that she did not like me, and roughly a dozen of my own classmates joined her.
These bullies spread vicious and false rumors about me. As they walked past my room, this gang of bullies would kick and bang on my door for no reason. These things happened multiple times a day for months and it was both women and men participating in this behavior. They would walk by my room and erase the things I had written on the whiteboard outside of my room. They would rip down my class schedule posted outside my room over and over again. When I passed the USCG license exam, they ripped down the triumphant sign on my door that said “Last Line.”
I never reported any of the bullying because absolutely nothing would have happened to them. In my time at Kings Point, the Academy never handled a single rape or sexual assault correctly, nevermind a case of mere bullying. I would have been laughed at if I tried reporting the constant bullying to someone. And yet it was horrible, and it made my life an absolute hell. The bullying was so constant and inescapable that I can honestly say without hesitation that my senior year was even worse than my plebe year.
These were not the only incidents of sexual harassment and sexual assault I endured while at Kings Point, however, for editorial reasons, it was decided to leave other serious incidents out of this article.
In 2016, I was contacted by a journalist for Newsday who asked me if I would be interested in discussing my experiences with sexual harassment and sexual assault at Kings Point. This journalist had received my name and contact information from a future 2017 graduate who knew about my experiences. After the Newsday article came out there were people who accused me of doing it for money or to get attention, but there was only one reason I participated in that article and only one reason I am telling my story now: because I want the females who come to the Academy after me to avoid the same horrible experiences that I had suffered.
I refused to read the comments people were writing about me in the Newsday article. However, even though I did not read the comments, I was told by a friend that there were people saying horrible, untrue things about me. Another female from the Kings Point Class of 2013 was in a 2016 article in the Washington Post that detailed a sexual assault she experienced during Sea Year, a story she was brave enough to tell publicly. I read the comments people were writing about her on social media and on the newspaper’s website. They were absolutely disgusting. These people were discrediting her as if they had been in the taxi with her while she was being assaulted by the ship’s chief mate.
Another unfortunate incident was the Sea Year “stand down.” The female midshipmen at the Academy at that time were attacked left and right for the stand down, as if the stand down was personally their fault. These females were even being attacked by the mothers of the male midshipmen! It is a never-ending cycle of it always being the female’s fault. At this Academy and in this backwards industry, the females will always be blamed.
In the infamous Washington Post article, Charles Hill, former head of the school’s national alumni foundation, was quoted as saying, “The sexual harassment issue has been around for years, why cancel the sea year now? I have never talked to anybody who told me they were sexually assaulted at Kings Point.” Hill is only one of numerous high profile Academy alumni who have chosen to believe that sexual assault at Kings Point or at sea simply does not exist.
I am currently pregnant with my first child, a girl. I am completely terrified of the world I am bringing her into. Everything that happened to me when I was in college is water under the bridge, but I know I could not handle the same things happening to my daughter. I would rather it happen to me again than for it to happen to her. It seems that a majority of the women I know have been sexually assaulted at some point in their lives. I would guess that seven out of every ten female Kings Point graduates will have been the victim of at least one very bad experience by the time they walk out of the Academy gates after graduation.
Although I am grateful for the life I now have, which is largely due to graduating from Kings Point, my four-year experience at the Academy was miserable. Sexual harassment, sexual assault, rape, and bullying are huge issues at Kings Point. Verbal and physical assaults are happening regularly, and the reporting system is not designed to protect the victim. This needs to change and this needs to change now.
I want equality on the Kings Point campus and in the broader maritime industry. I do not want females to have to fear the possibility of being sexually harassed or assaulted on campus or to fear reporting this conduct. I want sexual harassment, sexual assault, and rape to end, I want victims to be treated fairly and not be re-victimized by the reporting system and I want the perpetrators to be held accountable and to be severely punished.
These unfortunate incidents not only happen, but happen often.
Recognize reality, and believe the victim.
—Chelsea Tapper, USMMA Class of 2014
An Epic Sexual Assault Scandal, 30 Years in the Making, is Coming for the U.S. Coast Guard. This FOIA Request is only the Beginning.
An Epic Sexual Assault Scandal, 30 Years in the Making, is Coming for the U.S. Coast Guard.
June 30, 2020
VIA E-MAIL to “EFOIA@uscg.mil”
Commandant (CG-611)
Attn: FOIA Officer
Re: Freedom of Information Act Request
Dear FOIA Coordinator:
This letter constitutes a request under the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) and is submitted on behalf of Maritime Legal Aid Society (“MLAS”) to the United States Coast Guard (“USCG”). Maritime Legal Aid is a non-profit legal aid and advocacy organization working to change the culture of the U.S. maritime industry afloat by forcing the U.S. Coast Guard to take seriously the issue of sexual harassment and sexual assault at sea aboard U.S. commerical vessels.
Pursuant to 46 U.S. Code § 10104, ship’s masters and other individuals in charge of documented vessels are required to report complaints of sexual offenses prohibited under 18 U.S. Code Chapter 109A to the Secretary of Homeland Security, or to the Secretary of the department in which the USCG is operating. MLAS seeks documents, information, and data regarding the reporting of these complaints of sexual offenses to the USCG.
Background
46 U.S. Code § 10104 “Requirement to report sexual offenses” reads as follows:
(a) A master or other individual in charge of a documented vessel shall report to the Secretary a complaint of a sexual offense prohibited under chapter 109A of title 18, United States Code.
(b) A master or other individual in charge of a documented vessel who knowingly fails to report in compliance with this section is liable to the United States Government for a civil penalty of not more than $5,000.
The threshold for sexual contact that must be reported to the U.S. Coast Guard comes from Chapter 109A of title 18, also known as the “Sexual Abuse Act.” Per 18 U.S. Code § 2246, “sexual contact” is defined as “the intentional touching, either directly or through the clothing, of the genitalia, anus, groin, breast, inner thigh, or buttocks of any person with an intent to abuse, humiliate, harass, degrade, or arouse or gratify the sexual desire of any person.”
The clear reading of these statutes is this: if a crewmember aboard a documented vessel reports that he or she was the victim of “intentional touching, either directly or through the clothing, of the genitalia, anus, groin, breast, inner thigh, or buttocks of any person with an intent to abuse, humiliate, harass, degrade, or arouse or gratify the sexual desire of any person,” or if a crewmember is the victim to an even more serious sexual assault, the master must report the victim’s allegations to the USCG.
46 U.S. Code § 10104 does not allow the master or other individual in charge of a documented vessel to make his or her own judgment as to the validity of the complaint. If the master receives a complaint of sexual offenses, he or she is required by law to report the complaint to the USCG.
The reporting requirement of 46 U.S. Code § 10104 were implemented in response to the troubling findings of a Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigation into the prevalence of sexual assault against women in the U.S. merchant marine (GAO/RCED-89-59). The GAO discovered numerous sexual assaults committed against female mariners aboard ships, and found that none of the sexual assaults were ever reported to the U.S. Coast Guard, or to any law enforcement agency by the vessels’ captains or the shipping companies.
In their report, the GAO investigated the rape of an American female mariner aboard a U.S. flag tanker. According to the GAO report, the victim, a documented female mariner, alleged that she was attacked and raped while asleep by another U.S. Coast Guard credentialed mariner aboard the tanker.
She managed to escape her assailant and reported the incident to the ship’s officers...According to a Coast Guard official, the ship’s captain did not report the alleged crime. Once ashore, the victim herself reported the assault to the Coast Guard and later to the FBI. We were told by one knowledgeable retired Coast Guard official that three Coast Guard district offices declined to investigate the incident until the victim finally prevailed upon one of them to initiate an investigation. The investigation eventually resulted in a formal hearing before a Coast Guard administrative law judge. The accused was found guilty of misconduct and the ruling was upheld on appeal, resulting in revocation of his seaman’s documents...subpoenaed information from the accused’s personnel file and other company records indicated that as many as eight women mariners had earlier filed complaints with their employer about various sexual offenses allegedly committed by him...One woman who had previously worked with the accused testified at the hearing that he had repeatedly offered her money if she would sleep with him and had promised her overtime if she would grant him sexual favors...We could find no evidence, however, that any of the complaints was ever reported by ships’ officers or other company representatives to the Coast Guard. Furthermore, according to a Coast Guard official the alleged rape at issue in the hearing had also not been reported by the ship’s master or other responsible officials. It was only brought to the Coast Guard’s attention, sometime after the incident, by the alleged victim herself.
To summarize: a female mariner was raped aboard a U.S. flag tanker by another crewmember. She then reported the rape to the Captain of the ship, and the Captain did not notify the USCG or any other law enforcement agency. When the woman tried to report the rape to the USCG, 3 USCG district offices refused to investigate. Finally, her incredible persistence paid off, and she prevailed upon the USCG to investigate. During the accused’s formal hearing before a Coast Guard administrative law judge, it was revealed that as many as eight women mariners had earlier filed complaints with their employer about various sexual offenses allegedly committed by him. His USCG license was revoked, and an untold number of women were spared the horror of working for this man thanks to an incredibly brave survivor of sexual assault.
In another case, the GAO was told of the rape of an American female mariner aboard a different U.S. flag oil tanker, a story that was recounted to the GAO directly by the victim, who had contacted the GAO after she read about the GAO’s ongoing investigation in the newsletter of the Women’s Maritime Association.
This woman told us that she had experienced several incidents of sexual assault and harassment in her career in the merchant marine. The alleged rape occurred...after the victim, the assailant, and several other crew members had returned to their ship after drinking and dancing ashore. The alleged victim had returned alone and gone to her room to sleep. Her assailant came into the unlocked room (company safety regulations, she said, required that rooms be kept unlocked), and because of his greater strength was able to overcome her attempts at resistance and raped her. The alleged victim claimed that she did not cry out for help—or report the incident later—because she feared that she would suffer repercussions if she did. She believed then, and remains convinced, that the burden of proof would have been on her to establish that she had not instigated the affair. It seemed easier, she told us, to live with the secret of being raped, than to expose herself to public embarrassment and censure.
In another case, the GAO investigated alleged abusive sexual contact against an American female mariner aboard a U.S. flag freighter at the hands of U.S. Coast Guard licensed officers. The GAO found:
The victim, a graduate of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, was employed as relief third mate aboard a grain ship bound for Bangladesh from the East Coast. She was dismissed by the ship’s captain in Portland, Oregon, allegedly for job misconduct. She disputed the charge, claiming that the captain, opposed to having a woman on his ship, had been trying to have her removed from the moment she came aboard. Because of his blatant hostility, she alleged, including the making of derogatory remarks and references to her in sexually degrading terms, she lived and worked in an atmosphere of constant intimidation and had no support or recourse against the sexual advances of the chief mate, who repeatedly propositioned her and touched parts of her body. After her dismissal the alleged victim lodged a grievance through her union representative and a complaint of sexual harassment and other charges with the EEOC. Her case was settled without going to hearing or arbitration under an arrangement in which she received a financial settlement in the amount of wages that would have been due for the uncompleted portion of the voyage and the expunging of all adverse comments from her personnel record.
In yet another case, the GAO found that a U.S. Coast Guard credentialed crewmember aboard a passenger vessel in Hawaii sexually assaulted another female crew member, threatened two female crewmembers with violence in front of several witnesses, and subsequently received only a 3 month suspension of his U.S. Coast Guard merchant mariner’s credential as punishment for his conduct.
This case, also involving abusive sexual contact as defined by the Sexual Abuse Act, was one of only two such cases reported to us by U.S. Coast Guard headquarters as a result of a search of its automated database of administrative law judge decisions and orders. The incident in question occurred...aboard a U.S. passenger liner moored in Hilo, Hawaii. An intoxicated male crew member of the ship, after verbally abusing a female crew member in a bar ashore, including making lewd and obscene statements to her in a loud and threatening manner, resumed this behavior some minutes later aboard ship. Pursuing two female crew members in a threatening manner, speaking vulgarities, and touching the body of one of them, the assailant followed them into the ship’s galley and in front of several witnesses threatened them. As a result of his behavior aboard ship, the assailant was fired from his job and served with a charge of misconduct at the Coast Guard’s Marine Safety Office in Honolulu. He was found guilty at an administrative hearing, and his merchant mariner’s document was suspended for 3 months with an additional suspension of 6 months remitted on 12 months probation.
The GAO report details 8 separate incidents involving sexual assault against female mariners aboard U.S. Coast Guard documented vessels in the U.S. merchant marine, but they found that “more sexual assaults actually take place than are reported to authorities.” Regarding the reasons that mariners may be reluctant to report sexual assaults and sexual misconduct aboard ships, the GAO report noted the following:
According to a retired senior Coast Guard investigator, a psychologist, attorneys in private practice, and several women who had worked at sea, conditions of work aboard ship impose particular pressures on victims to refrain from reporting sexual assaults and related offenses. Specifically, they said that the shipboard setting constitutes a self contained, confined, and isolated work environment characterized by a special set of social relationships and interpersonal dynamics. With crew members highly dependent on one another, living and working at close quarters and predominantly male, women crew may experience an atmosphere of resentment, sexual innuendo, harassment, and even intimidation. Under such conditions, they may fear incurring the animosity of male crew members by reporting instances of sexual assault and related offenses. They are also fearful of doing anything that might cause them to lose their jobs, which pay considerably better than jobs on land for which they might be qualified.
Sadly, the GAO report also found the following:
One of the victims told us that of the approximately 12 women she knew of who had worked at sea, all but two had some experience of harassment involving force or threats. Most, she said, tended to view this with a certain resignation as something that goes with “the territory.” In view of the apparent reluctance of many victims of rape and other sexual offenses to report these incidents to authorities, we have no way of determining how many offenses of this nature may actually be taking place within the merchant marine or in other at sea occupations.
The GAO also found that the U.S. Coast Guard did not take the issue of sexual assault at sea seriously, and noted that GAO investigators “found it difficult to compile statistics on sexual assault at sea, because the Coast Guard, lacking a requirement or procedure for systematically reporting and centrally compiling information relating to sexual assaults committed aboard merchant ships, was unable to provide us with information concerning cases not already known to us.”
The GAO also found that the U.S. Coast Guard officials could not identify any requirement or provision of the marine casualty reporting regulations that would require ships’ officers to report sexual assaults aboard their vessels. The GAO report found the following:
Currently, the Coast Guard has no specific requirements for the reporting of shipboard sexual assaults and other offenses covered by the Sexual Abuse Act...While the Coast Guard maintains a marine casualty reporting system that requires ships’ masters and other responsible officers to report various shipboard occurrences, including any death or injury that involves incapacitation for over 72 hours, these regulations have been viewed within the Coast Guard as relating primarily to the safe operation of the vessel itself rather than to the welfare and well-being of individual crew members.
Coast Guard officials could not identify any provision of the marine casualty reporting regulations that would require ships’ officers to report injuries (defined by us to include both physical and emotional traumas) that do not result in 72-hour incapacitation of the victim. By the same token, these officials were unable to cite any other statutory or regulatory provisions that would require that incidents of sexual assault and related offenses committed aboard ship be reported to the Coast Guard.
Our work revealed no instances of sexual assaults or related sexual offenses reported to the Coast Guard through the marine casualty reporting system. Moreover, information obtained from women mariners tended to confirm that such incidents are rarely reported to the Coast Guard or other law enforcement authorities.
Recommendations of the GAO Report
Because of the troubling findings of the GAO investigation, the GAO made several recommendations and suggestions for updating the legal and regulatory framework to protect men and women from the scourge of sexual assault and sexual misconduct at sea. The GAO Report stated:
Establishing a requirement for the reporting of sexual offenses, at least within that portion of the maritime industry that is currently regulated by the Coast Guard, could, in our view, accomplish several worthwhile purposes. First, such a regulation would serve to publicize the act and increase awareness of its provisions and the penalties it provides for those who commit specific sexual offenses within the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States. Second, it would provide information on the circumstances and extent of such offenses, and a basis for determining if additional actions are necessary. Third, it could well serve to increase the willingness of victims to come forward. Aware of the captain’s obligation to investigate and report their charges, victims might have greater confidence that their accusations would be taken seriously and that their safety and welfare would be adequately safeguarded for the duration of their voyage or service aboard ship.
The GAO Report concluded:
In order to (1) promote greater awareness and understanding of the Sexual Abuse Act within the U.S. maritime industry, (2) obtain more complete information on and understanding of the extent of sexual assaults and related offenses in the industry, and (3) foster a climate conducive both to deterring sexual offenses and reporting their occurrence to appropriate authorities, we recommend that the Secretary of Transportation direct the Commandant of the Coast Guard to require that masters of vessels or other responsible officials promptly report to the Coast Guard any complaint of a criminal sexual offense covered by the Sexual Abuse Act as soon as possible following its occurrence or report of its occurrence.
Following the publication of the GAO report on sexual assault in the U.S. Merchant Marine, the U.S. Coast Guard, using its legislative authority granted by Congress, implemented a regulatory provision ( 46 U.S. Code § 10104 ), which required masters of vessels or other responsible officials to promptly report to the Coast Guard any complaint of a criminal sexual offense covered by the Sexual Abuse Act. However, the U.S. Coast Guard made the penalty for not reporting a sexual assault only a $5,000 civil fine. This law went into effect in 1989—approximately 31 years ago.
According to our research, it appears that the USCG implemented 46 U.S. Code § 10104 in response to the highly critical GAO Report, but then made the penalty for not reporting minimal, and subsequently never publicized the new law and never enforced the law.
Despite extensive research, MLAS has been unable to find a single example of a report of sexual offenses having been submitted to the USCG pursuant to 46 U.S. Code § 10104 since the law went into effect in 1989.
Despite extensive research, MLAS has been unable to find a single example of a master or other individual in charge of a documented vessel being punished by the USCG for knowingly failing to report in compliance with 46 U.S. Code § 10104 since the law went into effect in 1989.
According to the USCG’s own data, there are more than 200,000 USCG credentialed mariners working in the U.S. maritime industry. We find it difficult to believe that, in the 31 years since 46 U.S. Code § 10104 became the law of the sea, ZERO mariners aboard documented vessels have reported a sexual offense prohibited by the Sexual Abuse to the master or other individual in charge of a documented vessel.
If the USCG is not receiving reports of sexual offenses, it means that there is likely widespread lawbreaking and non-reporting of sexual assaults in the U.S. maritime industry. Therefore we are seeking more information from the USCG on this issue.
Documents and Data Requested:
All USCG policies and procedures for the collection, storage, analysis, use, retention, and deletion of data received by the USCG pursuant to 46 U.S. Code § 10104.
All USCG policies and procedures concerning the sharing of information regarding reports of sexual offenses received by the USCG pursuant to 46 U.S. Code § 10104 with law enforcement agencies, including the U.S. Coast Guard Investigative Service and the FBI, and any other law enforcement agencies.
All reports and records of sexual offenses that have been received by the U.S. Coast Guard pursuant to 46 U.S. Code § 10104 from any employee of the U.S. Maritime Administration or any employee of the United States Merchant Marine Academy at any time since the year 2005, with any personally identifiable information about the victim or the accused omitted from the report, if required by law.
All reports and records regarding the sexual misconduct of a USCG credentialed mariner against any student of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy that have been reported to the U.S. Coast Guard by any employee of the U.S. Maritime Administration or any employee of the United States Merchant Marine Academy at any time since the year 2005, with any personally identifiable information about the victim or the accused omitted from the report, if required by law.
All reports and records relating to USCG credentialed mariners wh0 have been investigated or punished by the USCG for failing to report to the Secretary a complaint of a sexual offense prohibited under chapter 109A of title 18, United States Code, pursuant to 46 U.S. Code § 10104, with any personally identifiable information about the victim or the accused omitted from the report, if required by law.
The total number of USCG credentialed mariners wh0 have been investigated or punished by the USCG for knowingly failing to report to the Secretary a complaint of a sexual offense prohibited under chapter 109A of title 18, United States Code since the year 2000.
The total number of reports of sexual offenses that have been received by the USCG pursuant to 46 U.S. Code § 10104 since the year 2000.
A copy of each report of sexual offenses received by the USCG pursuant to 46 U.S. Code § 10104 since the year 2000, with any personally identifiable information about the victim or the accused omitted from the report, if required by law.
The total number of reports of sexual offenses that were received by the U.S. Coast Guard pursuant to 46 U.S. Code § 10104 in the calendar year 2019.
The total number of reports of sexual offenses that were received by the U.S. Coast Guard pursuant to 46 U.S. Code § 10104 in the calendar year 2018.
The total number of reports of sexual offenses that were received by the U.S. Coast Guard pursuant to 46 U.S. Code § 10104 in the calendar year 2017.
The total number of reports of sexual offenses that were received by the U.S. Coast Guard pursuant to 46 U.S. Code § 10104 in the calendar year 2016.
The total number of reports of sexual offenses that were received by the U.S. Coast Guard pursuant to 46 U.S. Code § 10104 in the calendar year 2015.
The total number of “open” investigations of USCG credentialed mariners regarding allegations of SEXUAL MISCONDUCT of any kind that are currently being investigated by any USCG official, including members of the U.S. Coast Guard Investigative Service, anywhere in the United States, under the regulations of 46 CFR Part 5 and/or 33 CFR Part 20. This information may be available from CDR Christopher Jones, Detachment Chief at the “Suspension & Revocation National Center of Expertise,” or from Captain Jason Neubauer, USCG, or from individual USCG district offices.
According to CDR Christopher Jones, USCG, one of the primary reasons the USCG is hesitant to take action against mariners who commit sexual assault at sea is because of the “Equal Access to Justice Act,” which, according to CDR Jones, “requires the Coast Guard to pay claims to mariners that prevail at S&R hearings under certain circumstances.” Please provide all records and reports pertaining to mariners who have successfully prevailed against the USCG under the “Equal Access to Justice Act.”
All records and reports regarding the total amount of money the USCG has paid to mariners who have successfully prevailed against the USCG under the “Equal Access to Justice Act.”
All records and reports regarding investigations of USCG credentialed mariners accused of sexual misconduct that have been conducted by the U.S. Coast Guard Investigative Service since the year 2000, with any personally identifiable information about the victim, the accused, or witnesses omitted from the report, if required by law.
The total number of sexual misconduct investigations of USCG credentialed mariners accused of sexual misconduct that have been conducted by the U.S. Coast Guard Investigative Service since the year 2000. This information can be obtained from the U.S. Coast Guard Investigative Service headquarters in Washington, D.C. Their telephone number is 202-372-3000.
All records and reports held by the U.S. Coast Guard Investigative Service regarding the investigation of Maersk Captain Mark Stinziano, with any personally identifiable information about the victim or the accused or witnesses omitted from the reports and records, if required by law.
The total number of individuals who have reported sexual misconduct allegations against Maersk Captain Mark Stinziano to the USCG or to the U.S. Coast Guard Investigative Service.
All records and reports held by the U.S. Coast Guard Investigative Service regarding the investigation of Maersk Captain Paul Willers, with any personally identifiable information about the victim or the accused or witnesses omitted from the reports and records, if required by law.
The total number of credentialed mariners who have had a Suspension and Revocation complaint served on them by the USCG, or who have been otherwise punished, for allegations related to any type of sexual misconduct since the year 2000.
Request for Expedited Processing
Expedited processing is justified because the request: 1) is made by an organization “primarily engaged in disseminating information,” which MLAS accomplishes through its large mailing list of newsletter subscribers and via its widely read blog located at https://www.maritimelegalaid.com/blog; and 2) covers information about which there is an “urgency to inform the public about an actual or alleged federal government activity,” MLAS is an organization “primarily engaged in disseminating information.”
There is an “urgency to inform the public” about whether or not masters or other individuals in charge of documented vessels are reporting complaints of sexual offenses prohibited under chapter 109A of title 18, United States Code to the USCG in accordance with federal law. If the USCG is not receiving these reports, USCG credentialed mariners at sea aboard U.S. documented vessels are at a greatly heightened risk of sexual assault aboard their vessels, as the GAO concluded in their report discussed at length in this request. The information MLAS is seeking has the potential to immediately prevent actual sexual assaults at sea from occurring. This is an incredibly urgent need. Any delay in processing this request could literally result in mariners being sexually assaulted at sea.
Request for “News Media” Fee Status
MLAS is a “representative of the news media” for fee waiver purposes. Based on our status as a “news media” requester, we are entitled to receive the requested records with only duplication fees assessed. Further, because disclosure of this information will “contribute significantly to public understanding of the operations or activities of government,” any duplication fees should be waived. However, if the USCG disputes that MLAS is a representative of the news media, MLAS is willing to pay any fees up to $1,000,000.
Conclusion
Thank you for your consideration of this request. As provided for by federal regulation, I will anticipate your determination of our request for expedited processing within 10 business days. For questions regarding this request I can be contacted via email at maritimelegalaid@gmail.com.
Respectfully Submitted,
J. Ryan Melogy
MLAS Chief Legal Officer