Shocking Sexual Harassment Case Rocks Chinatown Fire Station
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- San Francisco Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White is coming down hard on firefighters accused of harassing a female co-worker at a fire station in Chinatown.
The woman in the harassment case claims she was subjected to months of abuse.
The chief said there's no place in her department for the kind of shocking behavior directed at a female firefighter and warned more discipline may be coming.
The new details that surfaced Friday about why the firefighter may have been targeted sound like something out of a soap opera.
What was first thought to be a case of alleged harassment at Station 2 in Chinatown has been revealed to be part of a known sex scandal that has been taking place for years.
According to San Francisco Fire's Department of Human Resources, a female firefighter says she was harassed for a couple of months.
She said male firefighters at Station 2 urinated in her bed, spread feces on the walls of the women's restroom and tampered with her personal belongings.
According to a source, the woman was targeted because she had been having an affair with another firefighter.
At an event to kick off the 150th anniversary of the San Francisco Fire Department, Hayes-White addressed the investigation underway involving Station 2.
"There were some balls that were dropped. Clearly," said Hayes-White. "And as a supervisor you need to make sure that the workplace is a welcoming one."
Chief Hayes-White wouldn't say if the affair and alleged harassment are related.
"They're just two different, completely separate things," said Hayes-White. "So one shouldn't allow another to have conduct that is completely not professional nor conducive to a working environment."
San Francisco Fire Department has the highest percentage of female fire fighters in the country with 250 women making up 15 percent of the department.
With Hayes-White heading the department, San Francisco is the biggest city in the world to have a woman chief.
"Coming on up, yeah, there were incidents that I weathered through," said Hayes-White. "I think a lot of people for various reasons have had conflict in the workplace, but it's my job to make sure that we minimize and eliminate inappropriate conduct."
Since the incident every fire fighter has been required to sign a sexual harassment document.
Additionally, all of the supervision will be transferred from station two to other stations across the city.
White-Hayes says more punishment may happen in the future.
