Colorado lawmakers back inquiry into Air Force Academy athletics
Protect Our Defenders President Nancy Parrish and Policy Director Miranda Petersen are featured in this report from the Colorado Springs Gazette:
Also on Monday, the group Protect our Defenders in Washington, D.C., said the academy hasn’t addressed concerns over a climate that its president claims makes the school a “target-rich environment for sexual predators.”
The group’s president, Nancy Parrish, sent a letter to the school’s Board of Visitors on April 4 airing the claims of an academy worker that cadets who report sexual assaults are subject to harassment and ostracism. That makes victims reluctant to seek justice, Parrish wrote.
Defenders’ policy chief Miranda Petersen said issues occur because cadets who bring criminal allegations are quickly identified within the academy’s insular community.
“If they all know you made an allegation against a popular football player, there’s an environment that turns on the victim,” Petersen said.
Academy spokesman Lt. Col. Brus Vidal said Monday that while leaders haven’t replied to Protect our Defenders, they have been examining the allegations the group has raised since leaders were notified by the Board of Visitors in late June.
“The Protect our Defenders assertions were very serious and demanded a serious inquiry and response – a matter not easily addressed in less than a few weeks’ time,” Vidal said.
