Elizabeth Warren
07/22/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 07/22/2024 16:02
Warren, Hirono, Sanders, and Blumenthal Call on Defense Department to Implement Reforms Protecting Students From Violence, Sexual Misconduct and Forced Enrollment in JROTC Programs
July 22, 2024
Warren, Hirono, Sanders, and Blumenthal Call on Defense Department to Implement Reforms Protecting Students From Violence, Sexual Misconduct and Forced Enrollment in JROTC Programs
Investigation of JROTC revealed disturbing pattern of violence, sexual assault, harassment
"These reforms are necessary to ensure schools protect students from sexual misconduct by JROTC instructors and do not force them into the program against their will… DoD must … fully implement… (them) before the 2024-2025 school year begins."
Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Mazie K. Hirono (D-Hawaii), members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, wrote to the Department of Defense (DoD) urging full implementation of the Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps (JROTC) Safety Act of 2023 prior to the 2024/2025 academic year, to protect JROTC students from misconduct by program instructors.
The letter follows a Warren-led Senate investigation revealing that between 2012 and 2022, DoD had received 114 allegations of violence, including sexual abuse and sexual harassment of JROTC students by instructors. The investigation was conducted after a July 2022 New York Timesreport that exposed an alarming pattern of sexual assault and harassment in the program. In many cases, reports of sexual harassment or assault would go nowhere, and instructors who were reported would escape without consequence.
The Times also found many cases in which schools made participation in the JROTC program mandatory, enrolling large percentages of their student body into the program without the students' consent. Schools with high rates of JROTC enrollment were largely those with "a large proportion of nonwhite students and those from low-income households." DoD has said that mandatory participation goes against the program's guidelines.
In response to the concerning findings, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 included several reforms, including provisions from the JROTC Safety Act, to increase transparency and protect students.
These reforms included requiring schools to report allegations of instructor misconduct to DoD within 48 hours, providing tools and processes for students to report misconduct, requiring annual reports to Congress to increase transparency on instructor misconduct, and holding schools accountable for failing to follow these requirements.
Under the new reforms, the Secretary of Defense must submit an annual report to Congress on any allegations of sexual misconduct, harassment, and discrimination in JROTC programs. The DoD must also require that all schools with JROTC programs make sure that all participating students have joined voluntarily.
"We are glad that the President's budget request included an additional $2 million to support the increased oversight reforms established in the FY 2024 NDAA," wrote the lawmakers. "We urge that this funding be included in the NDAA's final passage."
The lawmakers requested that the DoD fully implement the reforms before the 2024-2025 school year and provide information on how it plans to do so.
As Chair of the Armed Services Subcommittee on Personnel, Senator Warren has led extensive efforts to hold the Department of Defense and the Department of Education accountable for their management of the JROTC program.
- On March 15, 2023, chairing her first hearing of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Personnel, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) highlighted the importance of addressing existing failures in the Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps (JROTC).
- In February 2023, Senators Warren, Hirono, Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), sent a letter to the Department of Defense (DoD) and the Department of Education (ED) amid reports of students being forced to join the JROTC program.
- On September 23, 2022, during a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator Warren questioned top DoD personnel officials on disturbing reports of widespread patterns of sexual misconduct by instructors in the JROTC program, where they admitted DoD's lack of adequate oversight to prevent sexual misconduct by instructors and ensure the safety of students.
- On September 21, 2022, Senator Warren, along with Senators Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Blumenthal (D-Conn.), and Hirono (D-Hawaii), opened an investigation into the JROTC program, following reports of widespread patterns of sexual misconduct by instructors in the program.
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