KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - A firefighter in Missouri is accusing her coworkers of sexual harassment, including watching pornography at the station and showing her nude photos, a lawsuit says.
Dana Osborne, the first female firefighter in the Nixa Fire Protection District, filed a sexual harassment lawsuit Thursday in the U.S. Western District Court of Missouri, The Kansas City Star reported.
A captain 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 states. A few weeks later, he commented to Osborne that “This is is the exact opposite of making my (penis) soft,” according to the lawsuit.
“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.”
An attorney for the fire protection district didn’t respond to an email Monday seeking comment.
Osborne was hired in 2017 and almost immediately was treated differently and critiqued on a different basis than her male colleagues, the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit 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.
Karr Sleper said Osborne wants to be treated as an equal, noting that 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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