By Diana Novak Jones
Sept 5 (Reuters) – Greater than a dozen former U.S. Coast Guard Academy college students who say they have been victims of sexual assault filed complaints on Thursday looking for $130 million in damages, accusing the varsity of permitting sexual violence to go unchecked.
The previous college students filed administrative claims with the U.S. Coast Guard, claiming the academy in New London, Connecticut, for almost 4 a long time enabled sexual abusers and failed to guard victims or present them recourse.
The group includes 12 ladies and one man, mentioned Christine Dunn, an lawyer representing the previous college students. Every is looking for $10 million in damages.
The Coast Guard has been underneath scrutiny for a 12 months on the problem since a media report alleged it coated up a long time of abuse and a Senate subcommittee discovered it shamed victims and did not cope with perpetrators.
The complaints have been introduced underneath a federal regulation that requires them to be filed administratively earlier than they are often alleged in a lawsuit.
A U.S. Coast Guard spokesperson mentioned the service couldn’t talk about the complaints and would resolve them in accordance with federal regulation.
The spokesperson mentioned the Coast Guard is dedicated to defending its workforce and is devoting “important assets” to enhancing prevention, sufferer help and accountability.
The complaints allege assaults from the mid-Nineteen Eighties by means of the current, Dunn mentioned.
Though federal regulation solely permits complaints to be filed inside two years of an incident, Dunn mentioned that the clock didn’t begin till final 12 months when her shoppers discovered of the Coast Guard’s legal responsibility for his or her abuse.
A U.S. Senate subcommittee held a listening to in December about allegations of abuse on the academy following a CNN report in August 2023 that the U.S. Coast Guard coated up an inner investigation that exposed a historical past of abuse.
Final month, the subcommittee launched its personal report that mentioned the Coast Guard’s tradition of shaming stored victims from coming ahead. Perpetrators have been improperly addressed and victims weren’t given wanted medical care, the report mentioned.
In June, U.S. Coast Guard Commandant Linda Fagan informed the subcommittee that at occasions the company had “failed to make sure a tradition that’s secure for all.”
(Reporting by Diana Jones; Modifying by Leigh Jones and Cynthia Osterman)
(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2024.
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