Scandal snares Coast Guard Academy workers
Six people - one service member and five civilians - were disciplined for sex acts or computer misuse.
NEW LONDON, Conn. - The Coast Guard Academy has disciplined a service member and five civilian employees for allegedly engaging in sex acts on campus and using government computers to send sexually explicit and other inappropriate content, an academy spokesman said Wednesday.
All six people misused computers at the academy in New London and some of them participated in consensual sex acts on school grounds during the workday, academy spokesman David Santos said.
Two of the civilian workers resigned and three were disciplined. The Coast Guard discharged the service member, who was stationed at the academy and was not a cadet, Santos said.
Academy officials did not release the names of the six people or more details of their punishments, saying personnel decisions were confidential.
"It's something that we took very seriously," Santos told the Associated Press, "and the behavior of the individuals involved is certainly not indicative of the academy community."
The academy did not pursue criminal charges, he said.
Santos said that the improper activities took place within the last three years and that the six people were disciplined in August. The academy first released information about the allegations and punishments Tuesday to the Day of New London under a federal Freedom of Information Act request. The academy denied the newspaper's request for the 2,113-page investigation report on the wrongdoing, citing a personnel-files exemption in public record laws.
Santos said not all of the computer misuse involved sexually explicit content. Coast Guard policy bans the use of government computers for inappropriate discussions. The academy also prohibits civilian workers and service members from engaging in sex acts on campus.