Sea Year Sexual Assault Report(s)

It is a widespread problem and will not improve because the leadership at USMMA refuses to acknowledge the problem even exists. Women are reluctant to report due to retaliation at KP and in the industry and the fear that they will be blamed for another sea year shut down.
 
kpmom2013 said:
It is a widespread problem and will not improve because the leadership at USMMA refuses to acknowledge the problem even exists. Women are reluctant to report due to retaliation at KP and in the industry and the fear that they will be blamed for another sea year shut down.
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I think this is a problem around the country - not just at USMMA. Infuriating to a father with a daughter.
 
kpmom2013 said:
It is, but being out at sea with nowhere to escape compounds the seriousness of the problem.
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100% and that is horrifying. I am surprised USMMA would put a female midshipman in a situation where she would be the ONLY female on the vessel. One would think they would leverage opportunities to put 3 or 4 together. I certainly understand a female ship officer is rare and you cannot expect to always find a voyage with a non-student female on board, but these pairings are chosen by the school - so there is some degree of control over this. As a parent of a male, I can imagine the pressure this would put on the male sea-year partner to serve as the buffer. My mindset today is to enter into the trip knowing this can happen and that you must serve as the battle buddy for your classmate and never let her be alone with other members of the crew. It sounds overwhelming to me and I seriously hope this is not a future conversation I will have with my son. Even having the conversation pre-trip then puts a spoken/unspoken responsibility on the sea year partner to prevent an act of assault. It almost plants a seed that if something does happen, that there would be a mental feeling of responsibility for failing to prevent an assault. That is a lot to shoulder for anyone, let alone a 20 year old.

The blog post is mind blowing to me that we find ourselves here in 2021 with greater than a 10% incident rate.
 
Not every shipping company is the same. Some have made a real effort to hire more women and encourage an atmosphere of mutual respect and professionalism. Others allow repeat offenders to remain employed and crews rally around the culprit, lying through their teeth to preserve the status quo. The situation is made much worse when ship captains allow alcohol on board in violation of company policy.
 
shiner said:
100% and that is horrifying. I am surprised USMMA would put a female midshipman in a situation where she would be the ONLY female on the vessel. One would think they would leverage opportunities to put 3 or 4 together. I certainly understand a female ship officer is rare and you cannot expect to always find a voyage with a non-student female on board, but these pairings are chosen by the school - so there is some degree of control over this. As a parent of a male, I can imagine the pressure this would put on the male sea-year partner to serve as the buffer. My mindset today is to enter into the trip knowing this can happen and that you must serve as the battle buddy for your classmate and never let her be alone with other members of the crew. It sounds overwhelming to me and I seriously hope this is not a future conversation I will have with my son. Even having the conversation pre-trip then puts a spoken/unspoken responsibility on the sea year partner to prevent an act of assault. It almost plants a seed that if something does happen, that there would be a mental feeling of responsibility for failing to prevent an assault. That is a lot to shoulder for anyone, let alone a 20 year old.

The blog post is mind blowing to me that we find ourselves here in 2021 with greater than a 10% incident rate.
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Taking everything reported as true, a 10% rape incidence is beyond horrific. I used to do attend congressional service academy days to talk up the academy. I wonder how telling a room of 500 people, with all service academies represented, that KP had a 10% rape rate in our crown jewel sea year. How do you think that would go over with the US representatives and senators? Or the parents? Or the high school age women considering attending? The companies and individuals involved need to be held accountable to the maximum extent of the law.

Be sure to read all the other stories posted on that blog as well.
 
A lot of men out there don’t have families and havent had much success with women ever in their life. It’s kind of sad but that’s what I’ve experienced out there as a man viewing the ship as a whole. So I can imagine as a woman this is definitely problematic to be trapped on a ship with people like this
 
shiner said:
100% and that is horrifying. I am surprised USMMA would put a female midshipman in a situation where she would be the ONLY female on the vessel. One would think they would leverage opportunities to put 3 or 4 together. I certainly understand a female ship officer is rare and you cannot expect to always find a voyage with a non-student female on board, but these pairings are chosen by the school - so there is some degree of control over this. As a parent of a male, I can imagine the pressure this would put on the male sea-year partner to serve as the buffer. My mindset today is to enter into the trip knowing this can happen and that you must serve as the battle buddy for your classmate and never let her be alone with other members of the crew. It sounds overwhelming to me and I seriously hope this is not a future conversation I will have with my son. Even having the conversation pre-trip then puts a spoken/unspoken responsibility on the sea year partner to prevent an act of assault. It almost plants a seed that if something does happen, that there would be a mental feeling of responsibility for failing to prevent an assault. That is a lot to shoulder for anyone, let alone a 20 year old.

The blog post is mind blowing to me that we find ourselves here in 2021 with greater than a 10% incident rate.
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According to my cadet at USCGA, Coast Guard will always pair up female cadets for summer assignments at stations or on cutters. I assume this is one of the main reasons. Like shiner, I'm shocked that USMMA would send any cadet to be the only female on a ship.
 
I have no words, assuming accuracy here.

I have always said if there was a “#MilitaryMeToo” movement, there would be decades of stories. Sadly, I have to now say the same for this line of work.

Most people are decent human beings. All it takes is one who is not, a bit of a power imbalance, isolation, and:
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This was sickening. I have a pit in my stomach reading this and am considering withdrawing my application.
 
The young woman also chose not to report it, despite the availability of the SAT phone and the emphasis on SASH reporting. I understand she was underage, drinking, putting herself in a possible compromising situation, but, she needed to report it in order to have the offenders removed from the ship--as well as from doing this to other cadets over the last two years. The plans were put into place to give the midshipmen the opportunity to not have these things happen--or stop them before it continued. I know of many incidents which were reported and the violators were removed/fired. But, these violations need to attach to the violator in some way so they are not hired on other American-flagged ships/shipping lines.

This should NEVER happen. We all agree. But we need to have midshipmen REPORT things. There is no way the shipping company or USMMA can stop things if they don't know about it. My heart breaks for this girl as well as any others who have been violated. It shouldn't ever happen.

Sea Year was and is a great opportunity for our midshipmen to gain valuable experience and needs additional stopgaps to prevent and protect them while they are at sea. I'm hoping that this is another opportunity to KP to place further safety measures in place for midshipmen. Another Sea Year stand down will be disastrous.
 
Reporting in this instance would almost certainly have led to retaliation. While your statement is objectively true, it lacks empathy. How can we expect young men and women to report when they feel they aren’t protected from retaliation? Especially when they’re at sea.
 
Skipper07 said:
Reporting in this instance would almost certainly have led to retaliation. While your statement is objectively true, it lacks empathy. How can we expect young men and women to report when they feel they aren’t protected from retaliation? Especially when they’re at sea.
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That view creates a chicken and egg, or egg and chicken paradox. How are USMMA or the shipping companies supposed to do anything about it if incidents aren't reported contemporaneously so that an appropriate investigation can occur? We can't just assume guilt after the fact. The accused has rights as well.

For real change to occur there needs to be accountability - there needs to be prosecutions and consequences. If not, the status quo continues. That 60 year old first engineer she accused of raping her but refused to name is still out there, and perhaps enboldened by the lack of consequences. Naming names allows for accountability, and the potential removal of an accused predator from the fleet.
 
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