Nov. 17 (UPI) — A new report from a congressional subcommittee revealed a pattern of exploitation, misconduct and sexual abuse committed by people in power of a nationwide high school military program.
The Subcommittee on National Security held a hearing Wednesday in which it revealed the findings of its investigation into allegations of misconduct by instructors in the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps. Their findings were even worse than they expected when launching the investigation.
The report uncovered 58 substantiated allegations of sexual abuse, sexual misconduct and harassment that took place over the course of the last five years. Initially, the committee was only investigating 33 sexual assault allegations, which was spurred on by an article from The New York Times.
The number of allegations increased after the committee broadened the scope of its investigation, taking into account more forms of sexual misconduct. That increased the number of allegations to 60, with potentially more that have not passed through investigations by school districts.
The JROTC Army program was at the center of 26 allegations, the most of any particular program. The Marine Corps had 16, the Navy had 11 and the Air Force had seven.
“The information our Subcommittee is releasing today paints a disturbing picture of how some JROTC instructors are using their positions of authority to exploit and abuse students who have placed their faith and trust in the U.S. military,” Rep. Stephen Lynch, chairman of the subcommittee, said in a statement. “Sexual abuse or misconduct committed by a JROTC instructor cannot be tolerated.”
The JROTC program is involved with high schools, and some middle schools, throughout the country. It is in 3,500 schools and has an estimated 530,000 student cadets, most of whom are minors. It is a federally funded program that partners with the Department of Defense and is subject to the department’s oversight.
The Army’s JROTC is described as “one of the largest character development and citizenship programs for youth in the world,” according to its program overview.
