Senator Maria Cantwell Delivers Blistering Letter to MARAD Demanding Answers to Allegations of Rape, Rampant Unchecked Sexual Violence, and Oversight and Policy Failures Posted on the MLAA Website
New York, NY
By: Ryan Melogy
Finally, oh finally, someone with the power to investigate the cycle of ghastly sexual abuse that runs quietly and like clockwork through the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy’s Sea Year program has begun to ask the right questions and to demand accountability from the USMMA and MARAD. Hallelujah!
Senator Cantwell, our savior, may be the first politician to actually approach an understanding of the Sea Year program’s tragic flaws. The same cannot be said of those politicians with direct oversight responsibility for the Academy, such as Tom Suozzi and Kirsten Gillibrand (although, to be fair, they have been deeply misled by MARAD and the Academy for many years).
On October 12, 2021, Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), in her capacity as Chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, sent a letter to acting Maritime Administrator Lucinda Lessley requesting a response related to information that has been posted on the MLAA website (www.maritimelegalaid.com).
In her letter to MARAD, Senator Cantwell wrote:
“I write to express my grave concern over the allegations of rape, sexual assault, and sexual harassment made by midshipmen at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy (“USMMA”) and the response by you and others at the Department of Transportation (“DOT”). Through the Maritime Legal Aid & Advocacy (“MLAA”), a legal advocacy group formed on behalf of mariners, victims’ stories of shipboard sexual harassment, sexual assault, and rape have bravely shared their personal stories in blog posts on the group’s website. You and Deputy Secretary Trottenberg sent an open letter to the King’s Point community and posted it on the USMMA website on Saturday, October 2, 2021 acknowledging these allegations and expressing your unwavering support for the individual who shared her story on September 27. The despicable accounts put forth by brave young women and men just starting promising careers in the maritime industry are frightening and unacceptable. Many of these allegations involve a repeated pattern of crimes and intimidations committed by people in positions of power and responsibility on merchant ships, and include alleged poor oversight or policy failures of USMMA officials and Coast Guard investigators.
In light of the seriousness of these allegations, I ask that you provide the committee with a description of the steps that have been taken by Maritime Administration (“MARAD”), the DOT, and the USMMA to investigate the allegations made on the MLAA’s website, and actions taken in response to findings in those investigations.
Yes! Yes! Yes! Get them! Get them, Senator! Get them and don’t let go!
But there’s even more wonderful news. Senator Cantwell also recognizes the tragic and intentional failure of the U.S. Coast Guard to protect these young mariners, and she carbon copied Karl Schultz, the Commandant of the Coast Guard on her letter. If any doubt remained, it must now be crystal clear to everyone in the Coast Guard leadership that they will no longer be able to hide from this issue and that they will soon be expected to take drastic action to stop the outrageous rapes and sexual abuse taking place aboard American-flag vessels.
In her letter to MARAD, Senator Cantwell also demanded answers to specific questions that are going to blow the lid off of the absolutely sickening way the Sea Year program really operates. The information Senator Cantwell requested includes the following:
How many reports of rape, sexual assault, sexual harassment or related offenses have been reported by or concerning midshipmen of the USMMA in the last 10 years? Please provide a breakdown of these reports that includes whether the incidents occurred on campus, off campus, or at sea during Sea Year, the party that conducted the investigation(s), and the outcome of that investigation.
In the event that a midshipman is removed from a vessel following a sexual assault or harassment report(s), does USMMA remove all midshipmen onboard the vessel for their Sea Year? Please include copies of the USMMA policy, regulation or other guidance on this matter.
If a vessel or its parent company is the subject of a sexual assault or sexual harassment complaint, does the USMMA assign midshipmen to those vessels in the future? Please include copies of the USMMA policy, regulation or other guidance on this matter.
In the event that a midshipman makes an informal or formal complaint of sexual assault, harassment, or discrimination, may they request to be assigned to a different vessel for the duration of their Sea Year? Please include copies of the USMMA policy, regulation or other guidance on this matter.
What actions can be and have been taken by the Coast Guard to withdraw or suspend credentials of mariners with a history of allegations of sexual assault and harassment against Sea Year midshipmen?
There are many more questions that need to be asked. But this is a fantastic start.
Here are a few we have at MLAA:
Do the shipping companies that carry USMMA cadets follow 46 USC 10104, a federal law that requires ALL allegations of shipboard sexual assault to be immediately reported to the U.S. Coast Guard? How does the Academy verify that the shipping companies are strictly following 46 USC 10104, a critical and common-sense reporting law vital to the safety of life at sea.
When USMMA cadets alert their Academy Training Representatives (ATRs) that they have been sexually assaulted and must be removed from a vessel, do the ATRs immediately notify the FBI or the U.S. Coast Guard that a sex crime has been committed as required by law and as required by MARAD policies? Clearly, this information would be an “unrestricted report” under USMMA policies because the ATR knows the name of the victim, the nature of the crime, the ship where the sex crime occurred, and often the name and rank of the perpetrator. Or, in such situations, does the ATR pretend that they did not receive an unrestricted report of a sexual assault, intentionally fail to notify law enforcement, and then push the victim into the USMMA’s SAPR maze where the student ends up filing a “restricted report,” which goes nowhere. Please explain how an “unrestricted report” can be transformed into a “restricted report” by an ATR.
Is there an “alcohol amnesty” policy at the USMMA for students who report sexual assaults that occur during Sea Year? An “alcohol amnesty” policy would be a policy that allows a victim of sexual assault to come forward to report a sex crime without fear that they will be punished under the Academy’s draconian disciplinary system for being under the influence of alcohol during the sexual assault. Please provide copies of any “alcohol amnesty” policy and provide copies of all documents routinely provided to USMMA cadets embarking upon Sea Year that explain the alcohol amnesty policy.
In the last 10 years, have any USMMA students been punished for alcohol offenses after reporting sexual assaults that occurred during Sea Year?
Why would a victim of sexual assault contact their Academy ATR following an assault? Why does it not make more sense for the victim to immediately contact law enforcement, i.e. the U.S. Coast Guard? If a victim chooses to exercise his or her rights as an American citizen and as a Coast Guard credentialed mariner by notifying the Coast Guard of a sexual assault instead of their corrupt, sexual abuse enabling ATR, how would the student accomplish that objective?
Our savior Senator Cantwell is not playing around. She is demanding answers to her questions by October 26, 2021. In her blistering letter, Senator Cantwell closes with the following:
The maritime industry and United States Merchant Marine are a vital part of our national security and our nation’s economy. Sexual harassment, sexual assault, and other offenses are unacceptable, and the USMMA must immediately take action to stop this behavior and protect the men and women of the USMMA both at the Academy, and at sea.
Boom. Hallelujah. Times Up.