Two female firefighters filed grievances after finding racist and sexist graffiti in the firehouse

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

Insrall a friggen camera why doncha?

and the punishment of those who break the rules doesn't happen.

would start using the womens restroom when the mens' got too nasty. Their bathroom required cleaning twice a day at least. I finally put the ladies' room off limits, telling the guys that they could keep their mess in their own bathroom. When they complained that I didn't clean it often enough I allowed as how I wasn't the one who pissed all over the floor and walls. It got so bad that I refused to go in there to clean. One of the guys complained about it on his way into a meeting, and I followed him into that meeting and announced that 'anyone who brags about being able to write his name in the snow should have no trouble hitting a target that's bigger and closer'; also told them that any visitors who noticed the smell would be told who caused it. They actually started policing themselves pretty well after that.

Had a cat once that liked to mark his territory, but I'd never realized that some men apparently do the same thing.