Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) asked the Departments of Defense and Education for answers after the New York Times revealed a pattern of sexual misconduct among Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps(JROTC) instructors. The report says that over a 5 year timeframe at least 33 JROTC instructors have been criminally charged with sexual misconduct that involves high school students and that other instructors have been accused of misconduct but never charged.

“The senators want to know how many reports the departments have received with allegations of instructors sexually abusing or harassing students and what kind of guidance and oversight they provide to schools on the instructor hiring process,” reported NPR’s Deepa Shivaram, ‘The JROTC program can provide a significant benefit to students, but it is clear that students have suffered incredible harm because ED and DoD currently lack the necessary oversight to prevent it from becoming a hunting ground,’ they wrote in letters addressed to Gilbert Cisneros, the under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness, and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona”.

Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) and the House Oversight Committee also sent similar questions to DoD officials last month. The letter states that arrest rates for JROTC instructors are higher than rates of other teacher-student sexual misconduct cases and that JROTC host schools are often located in areas that are economically disadvantaged, “These troubling data clearly reveal that this program may be at higher risk for abuse and needs enhanced oversight from the military services and DoD”.

Follow this story at NPR, Senators demand answers from Dept. of Defense after reports of JROTC instructor abuse, by Deepa Shivaram.

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