Sexual Assault Coverup at Maine Maritime Academy

*This account was submitted to MLAA by the victim.

I am a woman.  After I graduated high school I enrolled at Maine Maritime Academy. My own experiences at MMA have made me realize that there are huge problems with the way the school’s administration handles reports of sexual harassment and sexual assault (SASH) on campus and at sea, and I know that many Maine Maritime Academy women have been negatively impacted by SASH and by the way the school dealt with their harassment and assaults.  I am sharing my story to bring some light to the issue and I hope it can lead to change.

My Story:

One night during my freshman year, my roommate (a female) came back to our room very late and very drunk.  She was having trouble walking and was completely wasted.  I was in bed asleep when she came into the room.  Shortly after she came back, a male I will call “X” came into our room with a friend of his.  X was a sophomore, but he was also a Company Rep, which gave him some power within the regimental system.  

My roommate and X had been sort of dating for only a few weeks, and their relationship was not at all serious.  X came into our room with a male friend of his, and they were trying to get my roommate to come with them to one of their rooms.  I was extremely annoyed to be woken up by three drunks, and I also did not want to take care of my roommate who was completely intoxicated and unable to take care of herself.  

I told X and his friend in the strongest terms that he needed to take care of her because he had gotten her so drunk, and that he should absolutely not touch her or attempt to have sex with her, because she was too drunk to consent to sex.  I told this to him several times.

My roommate then left our room with X and his friend and went to X’s room.

The next morning shortly after I woke up, my roommate came back to our room and I could immediately tell that something was wrong.  She was totally distraught, and she immediately went into our shower with all of her clothes on, turned the water on and sat down in the shower with the water running over her not saying anything—fully clothed.

I went in and asked her what happened.  She said, “he raped me.”

I asked her for more details and she told me that she repeatedly told him she didn’t want to have sex with him, but he held her down on his bed and raped her in his room.  

I was furious, and told her that we were going to report the rape.  This was on a Sunday.  A few hours later I called the school psychologist who is on call at all times and told him what happened.  I went with my roommate to his office on the first deck of the dorms on Sunday afternoon and we made a report to him.

The rape had happened around 12 hours before we met with him, but he said nothing about going to a clinic or hospital and doing a rape kit.  All he said was that he would have to notify Campus Safety on Monday—the following day.  Why not notify Campus Safety that same day?  You can draw your own conclusions.

Later I was told that according to the school’s policies, the psychologist doesn’t have to report the sexual assault if the victim is not in immediate danger.  And from talking to other women I learned that as far as having a rape kit performed, the school would never take you to get one done at either of the two local hospitals.  

And if you are a victim of sexual assault on the MMA campus and you independently went to either of the two local hospitals for a rape kit, the school would still find out about it.  Because women are terrified of the way the school handles reports of sexual assault, if we had wanted a rape kit done in a way that allowed us to stay anonymous and to have any chance at justice, we would have had to drive to an out of state hospital to get it done safely.  

After that meeting with the psychologist my roommate and I went back to our doom room.  Approximately 30 minutes after we left the psychologist’s office, X, the rapist, came into our room.  He was furious.  He had already prepared “Green Slips,” which are the lowest level regimental infraction, and he gave us each a Green Slip.  The infraction was for “disrespecting an upperclassmen.”

After we reported the rape, the psychologist (or from someone the school psychologist told about the report) had immediately notified X that we had accused him of raping my roommate.  X had then come to the room of the woman he had raped the night before and given her a Green Slip for disrespecting him (presumably the disrespect was the reporting of the rape), and also given a Green Slip to the woman who had helped her report the rape (me).

Now the pressure was on us, not on X.  Soon we were both called into the Assistant Commandant’s office about the Green Slips that X had given us for a “hearing.”  The Assistant Commandant is someone I’ll call “S.”  S is an ex Maine State Trooper and the general opinion of people on campus is that because of his law enforcement background he thinks that he’s above the law.  

Nothing had been done about the rape report, but we were now being called to S’s office to defend ourselves against charges that we had disrespected an upperclassmen—a rapist.  But instead of facing a low level infraction (Green Slip), S had increased the punishment to a midlevel infraction, clearly to put more pressure on us to drop the rape allegations.

The hearing was extremely aggressive, and S was a complete asshole to both of us.  We told S the whole story, and explained to him that X, who had issued the infractions, had raped my roommate. Of course he already knew this.

But when we told him this, S said, “I don’t believe you. He’s one of my son’s friends, and I haven’t heard about him sexually assaulting anyone before.”

S was the interrogator, judge, and jury.  He repeatedly attempted to get us to admit to anything that could have gotten us in trouble.  He blamed us for not coming forward early enough, as if it was our fault and we could have prevented the “potential” assault, as he called it.  And as if coming forward the morning after a rape is not soon enough.  The whole thing was a sick joke. 

We should not have been alone in that room with him.  We should have had a lawyer or at least some kind of representative on our side.  Almost all of the students at the school thought the hearing was total bullshit, and a lot of students in high regimental positions tried to get them to drop our hearing.  But since X was a friend of S’s son, and because it is S’s job to make sexual assaults disappear, of course S did not drop it.

The result of the hearing was that our mid level offenses got dropped back down to low level offenses, and I think we both had to do 3 hours of community service.  The rapist never had a hearing and did not get in any trouble.

And that’s how they handled the rape.  They punished the victim and the woman who helped her report the rape, never did a rape kit, never called the police, and intimidated us both into silence.  

We then had to see that rapist almost every day around campus.  It was horrible and we both felt powerless and deeply afraid.

After our freshman year we went on the freshman cruise.  In the male berthing the “boys” had a poster titled, “The Bravo Bang List.” 

The poster included a list of all of the fourth class female cadets, and by each of their names was a compromising picture, or a date and name of someone who had sex with the woman. 

Not every girl had a name or picture, but what I do know is that S was very aware of this poster.  I know for a fact that he found it during an inspection, laughed about it, allowed it to continue hanging, and then he continued to check it throughout the entire cruise.

The school has a good system in place for doing the coverups.  S was so good at it, that they’ve now made him the head of Campus Safety at Maine Maritime Academy. He’s the chief of police.

That’s scary.

But he’s not the only person involved, of course.  The entire administration is complicit.  One of the most powerful tools they use to suppress the reporting of sexual assaults is the issue of alcohol use.  

Our Title 9 coordinator would ask girls who reported anything to her if they were drinking. And if they had been drinking, she would say that there was nothing she could do.  If you were drinking when you got raped, well too bad.  It’s your fault.  And if you try to pursue the issue, we will punish you for the drinking offense.  That’s how it works.

In a righteous world where she actually did her job, the Title 9 coordinator would have defended us at our hearing, or taken steps to ensure the campus was safe so that the assault had never even happened in the first place.  But that’s not how Title 9 at MMA works.  

I don’t know of a single person who has even reported sexual harassment or sexual assault who ever got their day of justice. 

And now that S is the head of campus safety, I never would report a single thing to anyone at that school.

If you check the Clery Act reports from the year we reported the rape, you won’t find that rape on what the school reported to the federal government.  The Clery report is a total fucking lie. 

And it makes me wonder how many other rapes have been covered up at Maine Maritime. 

I want to see change at MMA.  One of the biggest changes I want to see is a rule that says if you report a sexual assault you cannot get in trouble if you were drinking underage.  

The current rule which allows women who are sexually assaulted to be punished for drinking before their assault keeps so many women from even reporting sexual assaults.  That seems to be the purpose of the rule.  

MMA also needs a new Title 9 coordinator and a new head of Campus “Safety.”  These people are not making the campus safer.  

They are doing the opposite, and I hope change comes soon.

*Note: After receiving the initial account via email, we interviewed the victim twice via telephone. Extensive fact checking was conducted and the victim approved the final version of this account and stands by everything she has written. We believe her.

If you have experienced sexual harassment or sexual assault at Maine Maritime Academy and are interested in telling your story anonymously, please contact us through our contact page. You may call, text, or submit via the contact form and we will follow up with you. Thanks, MLAA.