NEW LONDON, Conn. — A former cadet who was expelled from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy after becoming a father is challenging the school’s policy that prohibits students from being parents in federal court.
Isaak Olson was two months from graduating from the academy in 2014 with a degree in mechanical engineering and a commission as an officer when he disclosed that his fiancee had their first child several months earlier.
The academy expelled Olson under a regulation that requires cadets to either resign or be “disenrolled” if they incur a “parental obligation” from a pregnancy over 14 weeks. Messages were left Wednesday seeking comment from the academy and the Coast Guard.
"The Academy’s ban on parents has no justification,” said Yael Caplan, a law student intern with the Yale Veterans Legal Services Clinic. “Cadets like Olson are penalized solely based on parenthood or pregnancy, regardless of the circumstances and without exception. The ban forces cadets to involuntarily surrender their parental rights, and, in some cases, terminate their pregnancies to avoid disenrollment.”
The policy is not unique: The ban on parenthood is in effect at other U.S. military service academies as well.
Elana Bildner, ACLU of Connecticut staff attorney said, "The U.S. Coast Guard Academy's archaic regulation, which forces cadets to choose between parenthood and their degrees, has been morally wrong and unconstitutional since its inception. It is likely no accident that the academy instituted its arcane ban on parenthood only after it began admitting women.
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