NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) – A New Jersey woman said she dropped out of the Coast Guard Academy on the brink of suicide last year after school administrators dismissed her complaints that she was sexually assaulted by a fellow cadet in the campus barracks.

Caitlin Stopper, 20, of Cherry Hill, said she came forward with her story after reading news accounts this week that Webster Smith, another cadet in her unit, faces possible court-martial on rape and assault charges.

She said the academy suggested she was to blame and belatedly investigated her claims after her mother intervened.

“They were extremely accusatory in their tone and their questions. They told me I must have been flirting with (him). I must have provoked him by flirting with him,” Stopper said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. “They made the boy out to be the victim and they made me out to be the criminal, just in their tone.”

The Coast Guard Academy said it fully investigated Stopper’s claims. A letter written by Commandant of Cadets Douglas J. Wisniewski and provided by Stopper said the male student was cited for making inappropriate comments during swim class but the assault allegation could not be corroborated.

But Stopper said it was the way the investigation was handled, not the outcome, that led her to drop out.

Chief Warrant Officer David French, an academy spokesman, would not discuss her case because of privacy regulations but said cadets bringing assault allegations are treated fairly and sensitively.

Officials this week pointed to the Smith investigation, which could result in the first court-martial in the academy’s history, as evidence the system works. Smith is accused of assaulting six cadets on and off campus.

But Stopper said the academy culture discourages assault accusations. So, she said, when a cadet sat next to her in a crowded dormitory lounge in October 2004 and groped her while licking his lips, she didn’t immediately report it.

“They really stress unit cohesion and Don’t rat your shipmates out,’ and stuff like that,” Stopper said. “I really got the sense that it would cause a lot of trouble and a lot of inconvenience if I said anything.”

In 2004, nearly 150 women described a similar culture at the Air Force Academy in Colorado, where they said they were assaulted by fellow cadets between 1993 and 2003. A Pentagon task force found that hostile attitudes and inappropriate treatment of women also persisted at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and the Naval Academy.

The Coast Guard has a more welcoming reputation. Women represent about 30 percent of cadets, compared to less than 20 percent at the Air Force and Naval Academies and about 15 percent at West Point.

An aspiring pilot, Stopper considered the Naval Academy but her mother encouraged her to choose the Coast Guard because she figured women would be treated better.

Stopper’s first months on campus were perfect, even the rigorous initiation of “swab summer.” When the semester began, she said a fellow student began making lewd comments but she ignored it.

She said she also tried to ignore it when the same student assaulted her, but it stayed with her. Already struggling to stay afloat in her classes, her grades quickly sank.

Weeks later, at a meeting with her adviser, she said she broke down and described the assault. It was referred to Lt. Pride Sanders, the officer in charge of her company.

“He asked me if I thought it should be investigated,” Stopper said. “I said, I don’t know.’ Because it wasn’t rape, I wasn’t sure.”

French, the academy spokesman, said information about cadet rights and reporting such incidents is included in literature that cadets must memorize.

Stopper’s mother, Susan, said she spoke to administrators on a conference call and asked that a female officer take the case. The Air Force Academy and many police departments require that but Coast Guard regulations do not.

“There was never, ever a female involved,” Susan Stopper said. “How can that be?”

Academy regulations require counselors be made available during assault investigations. French said they were. Caitlin said they weren’t.

Susan Stopper said administrators seemed skeptical.

“How do you know she didn’t make this up? How do you know she didn’t bring this on?” she recalls hearing. “All they had to say to me was We’re really sorry this happened.’ That’s all they had to say. We hear what you’re saying and we really will take this seriously.”‘

She said academy officials’ failure to take Caitlin’s case seriously contributed to the culture that she believes encourages inappropriate behavior.

Stopper withdrew from the academy in February 2005. She’s received counseling and is now attending Rowan University. She hopes to attend law school and is studying to be a commercial pilot.

She said she hopes the women who came forward in the Smith case read her story.

“It’s a very long road and it’ll be a long time before they get over it, but they can get over it,” she said. “They’re obviously very strong women. They can do it. They cannot let themselves be intimidated.”