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Coast Guard Academy official who was told to lie to Congress about sexual abuse resigns. [1]

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Date: 2024-06-11  

CNN reports that a US Coast Guard Academy official has resigned, claiming academy officials lied to her and used her to help spread those lies.

Shannon Norenberg, who headed the academy's sexual assault protection program has resigned from that position.

She says she was sent on an “apology tour” in 2019

“to brief dozens of assault victims about their cases, which had previously been mishandled by academy leadership.”

One of the things she was told to assure those victims about was that Congress was fully aware of Operation Foul Anchor, which was the name given to the abuse

investigation. She learned later that was not true.

The Coast Guard said it was a mistake, not a conspiracy, to have that particular talking point on the list given to Norenberg.

Norenberg was also instructed to not include the historic assaults being investigated in data that Congress would see, she said, and was prohibited from offering survivors key paperwork that would have helped them access mental health services and veteran’s benefits available to sexual assault victims.

Sexual abuse survivors were encouraged to have their stories recorded so they could be used during Sexual Assault Awareness month in April, but

...after shooting the videos, public affairs officials warned that publicly promoting the testimonials “could continue to exacerbate the narrative … that the Coast Guard is in a sexual assault crisis now,” according to a copy of a memo reviewed by CNN.

A list of other sexual assault episodes plaguing the Coast Guard are detailed in the report, including:

Multiple Coast Guard officials – including two chaplains – have been removed from their positions for “a loss of confidence.” This included the agency’s top chaplain, who the Coast Guard said failed to take appropriate action when he learned of another chaplain’s sexual misconduct. In a statement after his removal, the chaplain said he thought he had made the proper report at the time, but now believes that the information did not make it to all necessary officials.

Believe it or not, Ted Cruz took issue with the CG policy:

When Senator Ted Cruz’s office discovered non-disclosure agreements that had been given to sexual assault victims as part of Fouled Anchor to prevent them from speaking out about their alleged attacks, he slammed the practice in a letter to Fagan (CG Commandant).

I presented an overview of the lengthy article which contains more of the Coast Guard's mishandling of the sexual assault crisis, but there is much more in the piece.

Congressional hearings are scheduled on the Coast Guard abuse crisis for this week.

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