The following is a guest post from Chicago, Ill. Civil Rights Firm Dolan Law Offices:

The civil rights lawyers of Dolan Law Offices have been closely following the allegations of sexual harassment and discrimination against the Houston Fire Department for many months. This post is the third in our series of guest posts on the topic. In August 2009, we wrote about our concern over the culture of harassment and discrimination at the Houston Fire Department. In December 2009, we wrote about our concern over the implementation of the recommendations suggested by the review panel.

Today, we write about a lawsuit that has been filed against the Houston Fire Department.

On April 12, 2010, Jane Draycott, the female firefighter who made allegations of sexual harassment and discrimination against the Houston Fire Department last year, filed a lawsuit. The lawsuit alleges that sexual harassment has been occurring, and escalating, within the Houston Fire Department since 2000. The alleged sexual harassment included incidents of unwanted touching, unwanted comments and discrimination based on gender.

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Guest blog courtesy of Dolan Law Offices, Chicago, IL.

As Chicago civil rights attorneys and citizens, we’ve been closely following the allegations of corruption and discrimination that have plagued the Chicago Police and Fire Departments for years. Recently, similar allegations have been made against the Houston Fire Department.

Veteran firefighters are concerned about the culture of sexism and racism that currently exists in the Houston Fire Department. ABC News reports that victims have dealt not only with harassment and discrimination, but also with life threatening tampering. Veteran firefighters describe being made to go into unsafe building fires in violation of department protocol and having other firefighters sabotage their safety equipment so that it was impossible to get oxygen during a fire.

The firefighters also report a culture of harassment and discrimination among the superiors in the Houston Fire Department. They claim that they often had to make their reports to the very people who were the harassers and discriminators
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