July 18, 2024: Coast Guard Initiates Hostile Work Environment Investigation Against Coast Guard Academy SARC Shannon Norenberg, Her Attorney Claims Retaliation

July 18, 2024

New York, NY

By: MLAA

The United States Coast Guard (USCG) has launched an administrative investigation into allegations of harassment and hostile work environment involving Shannon Norenberg, the Sexual Assault Response Coordinator (SARC) at the Coast Guard Academy (CGA). Simultaneously, Norenberg has rejected an attempt by the Coast Guard to reassign her away from her job as CGA SARC, with her attorney claiming the attempted move by the Coast Guard is retaliatory.

The announcement of the investigation into the Coast Guard’s most famous whistleblower comes a week after Norenberg publicly announced that she no longer intended to resign from her position at the Academy. In a letter to Coast Guard leader Linda Fagan announcing her decision to stay in her job, Norenberg accused Fagan of “perpetuating an ongoing, life-threatening emergency” by not offering medical care to survivors of Operation Fouled Anchor.

In an email reviewed by Maritime Legal Aid & Advocacy, Kevin K. Robitaille, Attorney Advisor and Ethics Advisor at the Office of the Staff Judge Advocate, U.S. Coast Guard Academy, states that an AHHI (Anti-Harassment/Hate Incident) Complaint has been filed against Norenberg and other individuals at both the CGA and Coast Guard Headquarters (CGHQ). Robitaille stated in the email, “As required by policy, the Coast Guard is conducting an administrative investigation into the allegations.” The investigation appears to be in its early stages, with no further details provided about the specific nature of the complaints or the identities of the other individuals involved.

Concurrent with the newly-launched AHHI investigation, the Coast Guard is attempting to reassign Norenberg to a temporary 120-day detail on the staff of the Coast Guard’s newly created Enterprise Victims Advocate (EVA). According to Robitaille’s email, the EVA is “charged with communicating the input and perspectives of sexual assault victims to Coast Guard leadership.” Robitaille also stated, “The assigned detail to the EVA will help facilitate this required [AHHI] investigation and minimize disruption at the Academy during the investigation.”

However, Norenberg’s attorney, J. Ryan Melogy, has issued a strongly worded rebuttal, characterizing the proposed reassignment as retaliatory:

“The proposed detail appears to be a retaliatory response to Ms. Norenberg's decision to blow the whistle on the Coast Guard leadership's decision to use Ms. Norenberg as an unwitting instrument in the cover-up of decades of rapes and other sexual crimes at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy,” Melogy wrote. “This proposed 120 day detail scheme appears to be an attempt to illegally remove Ms. Norenberg from her position at the Academy in order to silence and sideline a whistleblower.”

Melogy emphasized the importance of Norenberg's current role, stating: “Ms. Norenberg is the Sexual Assault Response Coordinator (SARC) at the Coast Guard Academy. This role requires her physical presence on campus to provide critical in-person support to survivors. Remote work would severely hamper her ability to fulfill these essential duties.”

According to Melogy, Norenberg is currently unable to gain access to her Coast Guard workstation. Melogy has requested that the Coast Guard “re-activate her CAC card and her access to USCG email and IT systems so she may continue her important work as USCGA SARC—a position she has held for more than 11 years.”

Norenberg’s attorney also requested the Coast Guard provide details of its investigation into Norenberg, and revealed that Norenberg has herself filed an AHHI complaint “against Commandant Linda Fagan, USCGA Superintendent Michael J. Johnston, and others.” Maritime Legal Aid & Advocacy was unable to obtain a copy of Norenberg’s AHHI complaint.

Adding another layer of complexity to the situation, the Coast Guard raised concerns about Norenberg's involvement with an organization known as the “MAST (Military and Sexual Trauma) Survivors Network,” which Norenberg recently founded to assist victims of military sexual assault. Robitaille indicated that Norenberg's activities with MAST are required to be brought “in-line with Coast Guard, DHS, and Executive Branch ethics regulations.”

Specifically, the Coast Guard’s email notes that federal employees are prohibited from using their official positions to endorse non-federal entities or for personal gain. Robitaille states, “Our goal with Ms. Norenberg, as with all employees, is to try to find a path forward that would allow her to pursue her goals in a way that doesn't conflict with her official duties.”

Norenberg’s attorney says that MAST “is not much more than an idea and a dream in Shannon’s mind at this point,” and that “she has not and will not violate any ethical rules. This is simply another attempt at intimidation and retaliation by the Coast Guard and DHS that will not succeed in silencing Shannon,” Melogy said.

Maritime Legal Aid & Advocacy will continue to monitor this situation and provide updates as more information becomes available.