The Air Force Academy has a serious sexual assault problem, if allegations from dozens of current and former cadets are to be believed, as well as the perspective of Teresa Beasley, the academy’s former top official on sexual assault prevention and response. CBS launched an investigation into what was almost a record year for assaults reported to the Academy, as well as two particularly violent rapes that left two women concussed, and which Academy officials described as dates gone wrong.
Beasley, who has 30 years experience working with victims of sexual assault and put in a decade at the Academy, didn’t mince words when she described the culture of abuse at the elite school. When CBS host Norah O’Donnell asked her if the Air Force Academy supports victims of sexual assault, Beasley simply replied, “I would have to say absolutely not. No. I think deep down they really don’t believe that sexual assaults are happening. I think they are minimizing the severity of them.”
She went on to describe how top officials were chronically doubtful of victims, especially on the timelines of victims abuse allegations. Timelines and other details can be notably hard for victims of any sort of trauma to piece together clearly, but that’s especially true when trauma is compounded by a head injury. That’s true in two cases that Beasley says the Academy tried to cover up. Two violent rapes took place on a secluded trail on the Academy campus, in the winter of 2014-2015. “Both were hit in the head hard enough to each receive a concussion,” she explained. “Both were hit from behind somehow. They couldn’t see anyone coming.”
Not only are officials allegedly disinclined to believe victims, that attitude contributes to an overall culture at the Academy that discourages victims from reporting and subjecting themselves to scrutiny and even harassment from their peers. Beasley says that there were 16 cases that weren’t included in the year’s count of total assaults reported to the academy because the victims never ended up signing the forms. Two of the cadets CBS interviewed describe the retaliation from peers and superiors that could easily inspire a reluctance to report. “The sexual harassment I endured eventually made me leave,” said one former cadet. Another said she wishes she hadn’t reported her assault, sobbing, “I regret it every day, because of everything that came after.”
The Academy Chief, for his part, later told CBS that he’s “disgusted” by the reports and suggests that Ms. Beasley’s office didn’t maintain necessary accountability. He also noted that cadets have enough resources available to them that “cadets can get support they way they want to get support, not the way that someone in an individual office thinks that they should get support.”
(Via CBS News)