Some Bad Apples

About 10 years ago the Los Angeles City Fire Department attempted to add women firefighters to its ranks. Although many women responded to the department’s recruitment program, none were able to meet the physical-strength requirements of the job. The department set up a special pretraining program to help the women build upper-body strength, and the program worked. The first class of women firefighters was graduated in 1983. Thus another barrier was broken.

But, as with any pioneering venture, there are problems. Some in the city Fire Department now say that sexually explicit television channels and magazines have helped make the fire stations more like men’s clubs than places of employment. In many older fire stations men and women sleep in the same dormitory, and privacy for a woman amounts to a sign on an unlocked door to a communal shower room saying “male” or “female.”

And now complaints of sexual harassment have surfaced. At a meeting attended by the department’s 54 women paramedics and firefighters last month, one firefighter said that, while she was lifting weights in the dormitory of the Westchester station months earlier, a veteran fireman repeatedly entered the room nude. Because she was on probation at the time, she was afraid to report the incident. A departmental investigation was initiated, and has now uncovered more alleged sexual improprieties. The department refuses to comment, which is appropriate while the investigation is under way.

The department has said that this is only the second complaint of sexual harassment since women were first assigned to the fire stations, as paramedics, in 1973. Others disagree, saying that there have been many problems, but because of authoritarian management most go unreported. Even in cases in which supervisors have been notified, they say that the problem is frequently ignored.

The department now has an opportunity to refute these claims. Governed by the federal Civil Rights Act and Los Angeles city policy, the Fire Department policy defines sexual harassment and provides guidelines for appropriate supervisory response to a problem. The policy says that supervisors must act immediately on learning of any sexual harassment, and in order to protect the involved parties investigators must question them discreetly. Some employees say that in many cases this has not been done. With few exceptions, serious policy violations by city employees require an open hearing.

If the allegations in this recent case of sexual harassment are true, they are serious enough to justify the holding of open hearings. Also, they are not only mere departmental violations but also breaches of federal law, and should be disciplined appropriately.

California firefighters have maintained an honorable reputation for heroic work throughout the years. Their jobs are vital, their work is difficult and their hours are long. If the Los Angeles Fire Department is to maintain this reputation, it must quickly determine the extent of any sexual harassment within the fire stations, discipline those responsible and make clear that such behavior will not be tolerated. All should not be judged because of the inappropriate actions of a few.