Panayiota Bertzikis

Panayiota Bertzikis enlisted in the United States Coast Guard in 2005 and served at Coast Guard Station Burlington, VT and Coast Guard Boston. While on Active Duty she was repulsed in the way that sexual assault survivors were treated in the United States Coast Guard and founded the Military Rape Crisis Center from her barrack room to offer support and assistance to her fellow shipmates/survivors.

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By Panayiota Bertzikis • 11 years ago

Coast Guard Academy superintendent make excuses for sexual predators

The United States Coast Guard Academy reports 10% of all female cadets experienced unwanted sexual contact, a 2% increase from the previous year. More than half of the women that reported sexual abuse had said alcohol and/or drugs were used as a tool to commit these crimes. Unwanted sexual contact includes a range of behaviors, from sexual assault to rape.

Rear Adm. Sandra L. Stosz the academy’s superintendent calls the increase of sexual abuse as “somewhat natural”. She was quoted in a New London-The Dayarticle saying:

“If, one time, a guy or gal is clumsy or stupid and tries to touch someone and they’re repulsed, they learn. Someone who goes around and keeps trying many times, that’s a different kind of behavior than someone who is awkward and experimenting.”

Sexual assault is not being “clumsy” or “stupid” but a violent crime –a felony with lifelong consequences for the survivor. Sexual Assault is sexual assault regardless if it happened once or if it happened repetitively over a period of time. The Coast Guard Academy should not tolerate sexual assault and the superintendent should stop making excuses for sex predators.

Shannon Norenberg, the new sexual assault response coordinator for the Coast Guard Academy tells The Day that she plans to teach the cadets what they should do to protect themselves. By teaching cadets on how “not to get raped” we are putting the responsibility of preventing rape on the woman and not on the rapist.

By Panayiota Bertzikis • 11 years ago

Military rape crisis center presses US coast guard to improve sexual assault prevention and Response

One in three women, as well as many men, in the Coast Guard are going to fall victim of sexual assault and rape. While a lot of focus has been on the Department of Defense to make changes, the United States Coast Guard–which falls under the Department of Homeland Security–has been exempt from having to implement the same DoD policies that would help sexual assault survivors.

Two weeks ago Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), Reps. Mike Turner (R-OH) and Niki Tsongas (D-MA) wrote to the Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard to express their concern that the Coast Guard has not yet adopted an expedited transfer policy for victims of sexual violence as have the military departments under the authority of the ...

One in three women, as well as many men, in the Coast Guard are going to fall victim of sexual assault and rape. While a lot of focus has been on the Department of Defense to make ...

By Panayiota Bertzikis • 12 years ago

Coast Guard falls behind on Gender Equality

Our highest leadership is 93.3% men. We are proud of our continued success in equality!

This is exactly what the United States Coast Guard boasted about on August 26, 2011 on their official blog. According to the Coast Guard this is what equality looks like:

13.7% of the Coast Guard workforce are women 13.2% of the Coast Guard enlisted workforce are women 18.4% of the Coast Guard officer workforce are women 6.7% of the Coast Guard warrant officer workforce are women

These statistics were not something that I had to dig far into getting. I kid you not but those statistics were in the article on Women equality in the Coast Guard. Those statistics were used by Coast ...

Our highest leadership is 93.3% men. We are proud of our continued success in equality!

This is exactly what the United States Coast Guard boasted about on August 26, 2011 on their official

By Panayiota Bertzikis • 12 years ago

On this Memorial Day let take a moment to honor our fallen servicewomen

More than 130 U.S military women have died in Afghanistan and Iraq. Of the 130 deaths, 50 of them the Department of Defense has classified as noncombat related. From those at least 20 of the noncombat deaths are considered suspicious involving the mysterious deaths of servicewomen after reporting a sexual assault or rape. Many more service women that reported a sexual assault died serving stateside or after leaving the service. On this Memorial Day and Military Sexual Trauma awareness day let take a moment to remember and honor our service members that lost their lives due to Military Sexual Trauma.

One such death is that of Tina Priest , a 20 years old Army Private First Class ...

By Panayiota Bertzikis • 13 years ago

Failing our service members that been sexually assaulted.

The Department of Defense (DOD) spent millions on their Sexual Assault Prevention and Response program to help combat what is currently a sexual assault epidemic in the United States Armed Forces. They distributed posters with slogans such as “hurt one, affects all” to all United States Military Bases worldwide.

Aside from the posters they formed new positions called Sexual Assault Response Coordinators or better known as SARCs. These SARCs are suppose to be found on every DOD military base to offer support to rape survivors from the time that they report the assault till the survivor chooses that they no longer need a SARC. They are suppose to be available 24/7 to all sexual assault survivors regardless if they ...

By Panayiota Bertzikis • 13 years ago

Sorry, My Fault. Sexual Assault in the United States Armed Forces

I was raped and they said that I wanted it then they said that I was lying then they went back to saying that I asked for it so I told them to make up their mind – Was my rape a lie or did I do something to ‘get myself raped’? and they went back to contradicting themselves; that I wanted it, that I am lying but I deserved it- then they discharged me from service.

That was how it went. That it how it always goes. Every survivor, every story. We are all told that we deserved what they think never happened. Cause you know we deserve being raped or being assaulted or being ...

I was raped and they said that I wanted it then they said that I was lying then they went back to saying that I asked for it so I told them to make up ...

By Panayiota Bertzikis • 13 years ago

Reporting a sexual assault in the United States Coast Guard

A man or woman is assaulted in the Coast Guard, they report it, are treated with respect and dignity and have a wealth of information and resources available to them to be able to heal from an assault, their entire command and fellow shipmates are sympathetic, they see their assailant be sent to the brig for life and the survivor can go on and have a successful Coast Guard career. The Coast Guard does after all have a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to sexual assaults, right? Well not exactly.

Year after year, shipmate after shipmate the problems are always the same. Survivors are being blamed and punished for a crime done to ...

A man or woman is assaulted in the Coast Guard, they report it, are treated with respect and dignity and have a wealth of information and resources available to them to be able to heal ...