COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — The Air Force Academy said Sunday it has launched an investigation of its athletic department and is demanding more accountability from coaches after the Colorado Springs Gazette reported allegations of lax oversight and athlete misconduct.
Lt. Gen. Michelle D. Johnson, the academy's superintendent, released a statement acknowledging "troubling" behavior by some athletes and other cadets. She cited a 2011 party that eventually led to the court-martial and expulsions of several cadets, some for sexual misconduct.
Johnson told The Gazette (http://tinyurl.com/mfoa5s2) that the academy inspector general's office will look into the athletic department to determine whether sports programs promote the school's ideals.
Johnson recently summoned coaches to a meeting and told them continued misconduct by athletes would put the school in a predicament like Penn State, where former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky was convicted of child sexual abuse, said Hans Mueh, the academy athletic director.
"(The coaches) still talk to me and say, 'I have never been chewed out like that before,'" Mueh told The Gazette.
Johnson said she made her expectations clear, and in response, coaches and athletes have created several programs to explain and enforce academy standards. A group called Cadet Athletes Against Sexual Violence produced a video pledging to fight sexual violence, she said.
The Gazette reviewed hundreds of pages of documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act that shed new light on the 2011 party and an earlier one in 2010. Air Force investigators looked into allegations of heavy drinking and drug use at both parties, and claims of the use of date-rape drugs and sexual misconduct at the 2011 party, the documents showed.
Several weeks after the 2010 party, investigators seized synthetic marijuana during a raid on six dorm rooms. Twenty-one cadets were expelled and five resigned, but it's not known how many were athletes.
No one was prosecuted as a direct result of the 2011 party, but it prompted an investigation of 32 cadets for alleged misconduct.
Johnson said three cadets were court-martialed, convicted and expelled — two football players and a female basketball player. Five other athletes received administrative punishment that resulted in expulsion, and six cadets resigned.
Three other cadets were expelled for what was described as unrelated misconduct.
