A Georgia State University junior says she abandoned the Air Force Academy because it had a culture that tolerated rape.
Alexis Jones-Hardy told Channel 2 Action News that she quit the academy in 2012 after an attack on her and on other students. She said women who reported the attacks were treated harshly by classmates.
“I kept saying, ‘Stop, stop, I’m not having sex with you,’” Jones-Hardy told the news station. “I must have said no at least 30 times.”
Jones-Hardy says the painful memories of the attack her freshman year at the academy in Colorado Springs are still with her. Three of the women on her track team were also assaulted, she claimed.
“I don’t think that the academy took it seriously, I don’t think they wanted to admit that sexual assault is a real problem at the academy,” Jones-Hardy told the news station.
An ABC News investigation revealed that leads developed, in part by an undercover cadet, led to the court martial of two football players for sexual assault and the dismissal or resignation of 15 other cadets.
“We want to acknowledge it, we own it and we want to move on. We want to do better,” Lt. Gen. Michelle Johnson, superintendent of the Air Force Academy, told ABC investigative reporter Brian Ross.
Johnson acknowledged the problems and said she was working toward change, according to the report.
That hardly satisfied Jones-Hardy.
“It needs to change, like, now, today,” she said.
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