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By Diana Novak Jones
(Reuters) - More than a dozen former U.S. Coast Guard Academy students who say they were victims of sexual assault filed complaints on Thursday seeking $130 million in damages, accusing the school of allowing sexual violence to go unchecked.
The former students filed administrative claims with the U.S. Coast Guard, claiming the academy in New London, Connecticut, for nearly four decades enabled sexual abusers and failed to protect victims or provide them recourse.
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 media report alleged it covered up decades of abuse and a Senate subcommittee found it shamed victims and failed to deal with perpetrators.
The complaints were brought under a federal law that requires them to be filed administratively before they can be alleged in a lawsuit.
A U.S. Coast Guard spokesperson said the service could not discuss the complaints and would resolve them in accordance with federal law.
The spokesperson said the Coast Guard is committed to protecting its workforce and is devoting "significant resources" to improving prevention, victim support and accountability.
The complaints allege assaults from the mid-1980s through the present, Dunn said.
Although federal law only allows complaints to be filed within two years of an incident, Dunn said that the clock did not start until last year when her clients learned of the Coast Guard’s liability for their abuse.
A U.S. Senate subcommittee held a hearing in December about allegations of abuse at the academy following a CNN report in August 2023 that the U.S. Coast Guard covered up an internal investigation that revealed a history of abuse.
Last month, the subcommittee released its own report that said 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.”
(Reporting by Diana Jones; Editing by Leigh Jones and Cynthia Osterman)
