Navy Toughens Sex-Harassment Rules : Military: New policy, updated in response to recent incidents, means dismissal for ‘serious’ first-time offenders.

Hoping to shake a reputation for tolerating sexual harassment, Navy officials said Wednesday that, beginning March 1, “serious” first-time offenses will result in immediate dismissal.

Lt. Mary Hanson, a Navy spokeswoman in Washington, said the new policy is a reaffirmation of the Navy’s zero tolerance of sexual harassment, but is written in such a way as to leave no doubt about where the Navy stands on the issue.

“This is a strong message to say if you don’t get the message, you’re not going to stay with us in the Navy,” Hanson said. “Now there should be no question about what we mean when we say zero tolerance.”

The stricter behavior standard was announced Tuesday in a message transmitted by Adm. Frank B. Kelso II, chief of naval operations, to all Navy and Marine commands worldwide. The Marines are a branch of the Navy.

Hanson said all Navy and Marine offenders will be immediately discharged after the first substantiated incident of what Navy officials labeled “aggravated circumstances” of sexual harassment. Some discharges could also be accompanied by a court-martial, in which an offender might be ordered to the brig and-or to forfeit pay, she said.

The aggravated, or serious, circumstances listed by Kelso’s order are:

* Threats or attempts to influence another’s career or job in order to obtain sexual favors.

* Offering rewards in exchange for sexual favors.

* Physical contact of a sexual nature, which could result in a punitive discharge.

“In spite of our longstanding policy of zero tolerance of sexual harassment, there are some who have failed to uphold this standard,” Kelso wrote. “For that reason, I have directed that, commencing March 1, processing for administrative separation will be mandatory for those found to have committed certain aggravated acts of sexual harassment.”

Hanson said serious offenders will be permitted to appeal their discharges.

Less serious acts of sexual harassment could also lead to discharges, if the sailor or Marine is a repeat offender. But Hanson said Navy officials hope less serious offenses can be resolved quickly at the command level through administrative action.

She said less serious offenses include “joking, teasing, remarks and gestures of a sexual nature.”

“Many times, sexual harassment of a less serious nature can be resolved at the moment it happens, and we still encourage that,” Hanson said.

Retired Navy Cmdr. Kay Krohne, who recently published a study of sexual harassment of Navy female officers, applauded Kelso’s order, but said the Navy’s zero-tolerance policy still does not clearly define what constitutes sexual harassment.

“I don’t think they’re really clear about what is appropriate behavior and what isn’t. It all comes down to treating women and men with equal dignity,” Krohne said in an interview Wednesday. “ . . . We have to focus on changing the attitudes and perceptions of both men and women. Women have to act professionally and men have to treat them as equal partners.”

She advocated publicizing cases of sexual harassment, without identifying the parties, “so people can understand where lines (of inappropriate conduct) are being crossed.”

In recent years, the Navy has been rocked by sex scandals.

Rear Adm. John W. Snyder Jr. was fired from his post at the prestigious Patuxent River Naval Air Test Center in Maryland after it was disclosed that he failed to take action on a complaint by a female Navy officer who said she was sexually harassed by other Navy fliers during a raucous Tailhook Assn. convention in Las Vegas last September.