TROUBLING

West Point Sexual-Assault Reports Nearly Doubled Last School Year

Total reports jumped from 26 to 50 in the 2016-2017 school year.

The number of sexual-assault reports almost doubled at West Point during the last school year, according to a data review done by the Associated Press. Incident reports jumped to 50 in the last school year, from 26 recorded in the year prior. This marks the fourth year in a row that sexual-assault reports have risen at the prestigious U.S. Military Academy. Both the Naval Academy and the Air Force Academy’s numbers only increased by one—from 28 to 29 and 32 to 33, respectively. Defense Department and West Point officials connected the rise to an uptick in the amount of victims actually reporting the incidents, rather than a rise in assaults themselves. “I’m very encouraged by the reporting,” Lt. Gen. Robert Caslen, the academy’s superintendent, told the AP. “I’ve got the steel stomach to take the criticism.”