Over a dozen ex-students of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, claiming to be sexual assault victims, lodged complaints on Thursday, demanding $130 million in damages alleging that the academy permitted unchecked sexual violence. The former students filed administrative claims with the U.S. Coast Guard, claiming the academy in New London, Connecticut, had -- for nearly four decades -- enabled sexual abusers and failed to protect victims or provide them recourse, Reuters reports. The group comprises 12 women and one man, said Christine Dunn, an attorney representing the former students. Each is seeking $10 million in damages. The Coast Guard has been under scrutiny for a year on the issue since a CNN report alleged that the academy had covered up decades of abuse ; subsequently, a Senate subcommittee found that Coast Guard culture shamed victims and failed to deal with perpetrators.
The complaints of assaults from the mid-1980s to the present were brought under a federal law that requires them to be filed administratively before they can be alleged in a lawsuit. In December, a U.S. Senate subcommittee held a hearing about allegations of abuse at the academy, following on the heels of a CNN report in August 2023 that the U.S. Coast Guard was covering up an internal investigation that revealed a history of abuse. Last month, the subcommittee released its own report finding that the Coast Guard’s culture of shaming kept victims from coming forward. Perpetrators were improperly addressed and victims were not given needed medical care, the report said. In June, U.S. Coast Guard Commandant Linda Fagan told the subcommittee that at times the agency had “failed to ensure a culture that is safe for all.”
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