Months before two Houston female firefighters found racist and intimidating graffiti scrawled on the walls and lockers of a women's dormitory inside Fire Station 54, their supervising captains knew chaos was in the making, according to records obtained by the Houston Chronicle.
Urine left splattered in the women's bathroom. Lockers with locks, but no keys. A cold water valve deliberately "turned off," ensuring a scalding shower.
In fact, Station 54's "Daily Captain's Log" - a communication tool shared between captains - shows that firefighters Paula Keyes and Jane Draycott complained at least six times since April 1 that their male co-workers were harassing them, and the log's sparse bureaucratic jottings provide a snapshot of escalating tensions well before the problems publicly exploded on July 7.
An entry on May 12 indicates one of the women made a report about the urine left on bowls of the toilets in the ladies' restroom: "Stated this has got to stop and that this is not the first or second time it has happened."
According to the log, at the next morning's roll call, an unidentified captain questioned the crew about the women's dorm and "everyone denied using it at all, this subject has been brought up several times in the past at roll calls and orders have been given that those areas are off limits on our shifts at all times. So to address the … log entry yesterday, I have never seen anyone go into those area for years now since I have given those orders for off limits."
While there is no regulation barring men from women's dorms in the few firehouses that have separate quarters, it is Station 54's policy that no men go into the women's dorm.
http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl?id=2009_4767487