KINGS POINT, N.Y. (AP) — U.S. Merchant Marine Academy cadets should be given satellite phones or other devices that would make it easier for them to report sexual abuse or harassment when they are at sea working as interns on commercial vessels, U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand said Tuesday.
Academy administrators say sexual abuse surveys, interviews with cadets returning from the Sea Year program and other feedback led to the decision last summer to pull personnel off commercial vessels.
The Department of Transportation, which runs the military academy, has since placed cadets on government vessels to earn credits while it studies ways to stem alleged incidents of sexual abuse, bullying and harassment, both at sea and at the campus in suburban Long Island.
