( CNN ) -- The head of the U.S. Coast Guard and a congressman planned to travel to the Coast Guard Academy on Thursday to speak to cadets about the discovery this summer of two small hangman 's nooses on Coast Guard properties . Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Thad Allen , seen in a file photo , planned to address cadets on Thursday . `` These are going to be our future leaders . The last thing you want are your leaders not being tolerant , '' Rep. Elijah Cummings , D-Maryland , told CNN before heading for the academy with Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Thad Allen . A 6-inch string tied as a noose was found in an African-American cadet 's sea bag in July while he was serving aboard the historic tall ship Eagle . And during race-relations training in August -- set up in response to the first incident -- a white female civil rights instructor found a small noose in her office at the academy in New London , Connecticut . Initial investigations failed to discover who was responsible . Last week , after the incidents became public , academy superintendent Rear Adm. J. Scott Burhoe ordered the Coast Guard Investigative Service to investigate further . People found to be involved could be prosecuted under military law , he said in a written statement . An academy spokesman , Chief Warrant Officer David French , said Burhoe is expanding race relations training to all staff members at the academy , and has contacted the community and the NAACP for assistance . Cummings said he would have a message for the cadets when he addressed them on Thursday . `` I want to say to them that they should not tolerate it amongst themselves , because they will be judged by their weakest link , '' he said . `` So far we have n't found out who did this , but I think they can help us find this person . '' The noose incidents were first reported last week in The Day newspaper in New London . The reports came amid a rash of incidents around the country involving nooses and their grim symbolism . The so-called `` Jena 6 '' case began about a year ago when white students in a small Louisiana town hung nooses from a schoolyard tree after black students sat under it . Last month , two teenagers were arrested in nearby Alexandria , Louisiana , after driving through town with nooses hanging from their pickup truck , the night after a protest march brought thousands of demonstrators to Jena . In Hempstead , Long Island , a suburb of New York , a noose was found Friday hanging in the locker room at a police station . Community leaders called for an investigation into that incident . `` The noose , to African Americans , is a symbol of hatred and it takes us back to the times when African-American people were being hung from trees for no reason at all , '' Cummings said . `` And so it 's a very offensive kind of thing . '' The Coast Guard Academy has about 980 cadets , about 14 percent of whom are minorities . African Americans make up about 4 percent of the corps . E-mail to a friend .
Coast Guard commandant , congressman , to speak at academy Thursday . Two small nooses found on Coast Guard properties this summer . Comment: