By Todd Ackerman and Allan Turner
The Houston Chronicle
HOUSTON — Houston’s two female firefighters who were the target Tuesday of acts of hate described themselves Wednesday as worried about their safety and demanded the abuse end.
In their first comments about harassment that culminated in racist and sexist epithets scrawled across a door at Fire Station 54 at Bush Intercontinental Airport, Jane Draycott and Paula Keyes said they’re devastated by the attacks and at a loss to understand them.
“It’s demented,” said Draycott, a 16-year veteran of Texas fire departments who came to work Tuesday to find not just the graffiti but the mutilation of a treasured photo of her and her teenage daughter who was killed in a 2006 car crash. “Someone is absolutely sick to do this. It’s got to stop.”
Draycott, who is white, said the act was no isolated incident, citing less sensational but still shocking discriminatory acts dating back as far as two years, when she joined Station 54.
Keyes, who is black, said this was the first time she’d been harassed. An eight-year veteran of the department, she only joined the station three months ago.
Draycott said there is no question the abuse is primarily gender directed. She and Keyes were the only women among 50 men assigned to the firehouse.
Their targeting has left the Fire Department in turmoil, with Chief Phil Boriskie expressing fury at the unknown perpetrators.
“You know me as being a calm and collected individual in the face of adversity,” the chief said earlier Wednesday. “I’m having difficulty today because I’m mad, mad as hell.”
Boriskie’s comments came as he announced the department’s latest public relations black eye — seven seconds of racial epithets broadcast Wednesday morning over a Fire Department radio frequency — had come from someone who hacked into the radio system using a non-departmental radio. As with Tuesday’s incident, he said, the broadcast has been referred to the city’s office of the inspector general.
Mayor Bill White was out of town Wednesday and unavailable for comment, his spokesman said. Earlier this week, White issued a written statement that he is confident investigators “will get to the bottom of it.”
Out on vacation time
Until Wednesday evening, investigators had barred Draycott and Keyes from speaking publicly. But at a news conference downtown, their lawyer said they received permission to speak within certain limitations.
They are not working while the matter is being investigated and are having to use vacation time, said attorney Joe Ahmad. He said he hopes to change that.
The women spoke, sometimes tearfully, about the abuse, their reaction to it and the need for whoever is responsible to be punished. They called for no specific discipline, saying that is for the investigation to determine.
Keyes said she hasn’t recovered from the epithets, which included “the N word and the B word.”
“I was devastated,” said Keyes. “You hear rumors about racism and sexism in the department, but I never thought anything like this would happen to me. I never thought I’d have to be afraid of my own co-workers. I had their backs. I thought they had mine.”
The mutilated photo included the word “die” written over Draycott’s face and the word “dead” over the face of her late daughter, Amanda. The faces in other family photos posted on her locker were obliterated with a felt-tip marker.
Keyes and Draycott said they had no idea who was behind Tuesday’s graffiti, saying “it could be anyone.” Though she described some co-workers as “good guys,” Draycott said the hostility she sometimes faced was widespread.
Draycott described the litany of incidents over the past two years: her shower’s cold water being disconnected so she was subsequently scalded; vandalism in the women’s restroom that included urination on the toilet seats, sink and walls and snipping of wires to the speaker that alerts firefighters to emergency calls; and a colleague saying he didn’t want to sit with “the riffraff” when declining to sit at her table.
She also described superiors forcing her to take and score highly on exams after being off work for extended periods while her male coworkers who were off longer did not have to demonstrate such re-entry skills.
She said she made frequent complaints about the abuse, but it never changed.
Draycott said she feels like “a rubber band that’s been wound too tight” because of the stress the past two years. But she also said she’s intent on returning to her job at Station 54. “I’m not going to let them run me out of my station,” vowed Draycott, the holder of a black belt in karate. “They’re not going to succeed.”
Draycott’s husband had planned to retire from police work while his wife continued to work as a firefighter. Now, he said, the plan is uncertain.
“I’m very angry, very concerned about my wife, concerned about her career,” Jason Draycott told the Chronicle earlier Wednesday. “She wants to go back to work. That’s what she plans, but reality sometimes can be something else.”
Keyes, however, said she doesn’t want to go back to “that station. I want to be transferred.”
“I’m risking my life to save other lives,” said Keyes, describing herself as afraid in her own house. “I have to worry about my co-workers writing ‘die’ on my family’s photos. I worked too hard to get where I am ... for them to drag me back down.”
The racial epithets broadcast Wednesday did not come from any of the department’s registered radios, each of which has a unique tracking number, said Boriskie.
The segment, containing a vulgar message directed at blacks, has been referred to the city’s office of the inspector general and the Federal Communications Commission.
‘Inherent problem’
City Council members Wednesday expressed outrage over the incidents.
“An isolated incident is one isolated incident, but when an isolated incident becomes a pattern, you may have an inherent problem in the department,” said Councilman Jarvis Johnson, who has called for a citywide zero-tolerance policy on racism. Outside investigators may be warranted, he said.
Despite her determination to return to the station, Draycott admitted that the abuse has taken its toll.
“I used to be so proud to be a Houston firefighter,” she said. “I used to have a firefighter decal on my car. I don’t anymore.”
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