Fire captain sent photo of Apple watch on genitalia to female firefighter, MO suit says
The first female firefighter in a Missouri fire department is accusing her coworkers of sexual harassment, including watching pornography at the station and showing her photos of genitalia, a lawsuit says.
Nixa Fire Protection District firefighter Dana Osborne was hired in 2017 and almost immediately was treated differently and critiqued on a different basis than her male colleagues, according to the federal lawsuit filed Thursday.
A fire captain made an “inappropriate and unwelcome comment” about Osborne’s buttocks, the lawsuit says.
Another captain watched porn with Osborne in his presence and showed pictures of bare backsides of women around the station, according to the lawsuit.
The same captain also sent her a picture of an erect penis with an Apple watch wrapped around it and the caption “selling my apple watch...lemme know if your (sic) interested,” the lawsuit says. A few weeks later, he commented to Osborne that “This is is the exact opposite of making my (penis) soft,” according to the lawsuit.
An attorney for the fire protection district didn’t respond to an email Monday seeking comment.
“What sticks out the most for me is the near-constant barrage of pornography in the workplace,” Osborne’s attorney, Heidi Karr Sleper, told McClatchy News. “This is 2020, and we’re still having to deal with male firefighters acting like this is a locker room.”
Karr Sleper compared the case to a female firefighter’s lawsuit in the Chicago suburbs in which a jury awarded her firm’s client $11 million. In that case, the first female firefighter at Country Club Hills Fire Department complained about firefighters watching porn at work and losing out on promotions because of her gender, WBBM reported.
Osborne’s lawsuit includes other specific examples of firefighters watching porn videos together at the station, sexual memes, dirty jokes and pictures of genitalia.
It also includes accusations that Osborne was denied training and female-appropriate equipment and that the department retaliated after she filed sexual harassment and discrimination complaints.
“(Osborne) had recurring nightmares that she would be in a dangerous fire situation with her coworkers and they would not help her,” the lawsuit says.
Osborne, a mother of three, graduated from the Southeastern Missouri State University Law Enforcement Academy in 2003, became a firearms and defensive tactics instructor, then left law enforcement to be a firefighter, according to a Columbia Southern University news release about a scholarship she won.
“As the first career female firefighter in my district, it is my heart’s desire to continue to break barriers, serve as a positive role model to others and to be an effective leader within my organization,” Osborne said in the June 2019 news release.
Asked what Osborne hopes for in a resolution to the lawsuit, Karr Sleper said she wants to be treated as an equal and mentioned the times her client has talked to girls as a public speaker about becoming a firefighter in a predominantly male profession.
“She wants to be able to look these little girls in the eye and tell them that working at the fire station is a great thing,” Karr Sleper said.
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