In the case of O'Rourke v. City of Providence, Julia M. O'Rourke was the plaintiff while the defendant was the City of Providence. The plaintiff had been an employee of the firefighting department between 1992 and 1995. She later filed a complaint that cited several common legal issues including a hostile working environment that not only affected emergency services but also violated the Rhodes Island General Law 28-5-24.1, the Fair Employment Practice Act, Civil Rights Act – 42 United States Code 2000e on sexual harassment and equal rights. Therefore, she sought damages pursuant to the 42 United States Code 1983. The case hearing date designated as case number 95-cv-343 was 14 th July 1997 presented to the United States District of Rhode Island presided over by Judge Ronald R. Lagueux. The Attorneys for the plaintiff were Gerald C. DeMaria and Patricia E. Anderson, while the Attorneys for the defendant were Kevin F. McHugh and Edward C. Roy.
Sexual harassment is one of the most common legal issues that usually impact emergency services, and victims can both be males and females with various experiences. In most cases, emergency organizations often create a working environment that favors or encourages such common legal issues; hence, they often have a significant role in preventing any further occurrences of the same but usually do not.
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During her time at the City of Providence Fire Department, right from the beginning at the fire academy through to her first years as a firefighter, Julia M. O'Rourke underwent defamation and sexual harassment. In response, the City of Prevalence’s fire department incorporated a six-month training program that included sexual harassment –which the plaintiff endured. During the training, sexual behavior and harassment were openly directed towards her even in the presence of supervisors. In a particular instance, Andre Ferro, an active member of the Fire Department at the City of Providence, passed around a video of himself having sex with his girlfriend, and even though an instructor was present, he did nothing about it, which was unacceptable as it made O'Rourke, the only female present, uncomfortable . Andre went ahead and discussed his sexual skillfulness, perseverance, size of his manhood, sexual positions, oral sex, and sexual encounters when the team was on lunch breaks even in the presence of superiors who did nothing and seemingly encouraged the unethical behavior.
Even though O'Rourke tried to show how uncomfortable she was with Ferro, he never stopped, and this was because the officials in the organization failed to take necessary action against Ferro. In another instance during pool exercise training, Ferro pointed at O'Rourke's breasts and said that she was “staked,” in the supervisors’ presence. In yet another incident, while the teams were in a queue for roll call, Ferro stood behind O'Rourke and consistently made remarks that women were pigs; a remark that substantially demeans and defames the image of women, and thus, should not have been condoned or accepted. Further, the lack of action exacerbated the situation to a point where male colleagues such as McDonald had the confidence and audacity to snap her bra. This behavior was not only an unacceptable act of sexual harassment but also unethical.
Moreover, following the bra-snapping, McDonald went on to make comments about her scent and asked her if a fellow female trainee ever made gestures and looked at her in their changing room, which is a violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ( Marshall, 2017) . He went ahead and asked if O'Rourke was on birth control he wanted to have sex with her later that night. Following the continued harassment, she even opted to wear oversized clothes during the training period.
Several other instances as shown in the case records indicate how the organization’s officials contributed to the worsening of the situation. These included the post-training period when O'Rourke worked in the office of the Fire Department Chief Bertoncini where she witnessed the chief sexually harassing his secretaries, and later on getting harassed by McCollough who rubbed his cheek against hers and touched his body to hers. During the same period, O'Rourke later met Ferro who continued his sexual utterances urging her to have him. Further, when she was assigned to Engine 5, being the only female present, O'Rourke was constantly exposed to pornographic magazines which her male counterparts often read making her very uncomfortable, a situation which is ethically unacceptable in a working environment. At one point she left the department for a while, and when she got back, she was informed about a hidden camera in her bedroom which frustrated her because she felt her privacy was being invaded. Also, some privileges were given to her male counterparts which she never got, especially when she got singled out for mistakes which most times the male colleagues were culpable for.
As such, the officials and leaders of the Fire Department were responsible as they witnessed most of the sexual harassment instances but never used their authority to take necessary measures to deal with them. Further, the organization’s leadership was guilty because it never implemented rules and regulations that protected against sexual harassment. It also failed to employ the required number of female employees that could have contributed to gender balance in the department thereby reducing sexual harassment. The Providence City Fire Department was, therefore, responsible because the supervisors knew that O'Rourke regularly underwent sexual harassment, but failed to take necessary steps to remedy the situation. Even after the promulgation of the sexual harassment policy by the chief of the department in 1992 that barred members from possessing pornographic magazines within the department, viewing of sex videos, making jokes that could lead to sexual harassment, the department still failed. Thus, their failure provided a platform for the likes of Ferro to harass O'Rourke continuously.
Furthermore, O'Rourke’s co-workers were individually guilty for sexually harassing her and creating an environment that favored sexual harassment. For instance, in one occurrence, a man named Isom who operated in station five had accessed O'Rourke’s bedroom in the night when she was not in and left a note asking her out. Certainly, this was an invasion of her privacy because the man entered into her private bedroom without her consent and knowledge. Consequently, O'Rourke started feeling awkward as she became weary of the fact that every man she worked with wanted to sleep with her. When she had her first mission that led to her reassignment to station 13, Rhodes Island General Law 28-5-24.1 and the Fair Employment Practice Act were infringed. This is because there were no grounds for reassigning her, only that she was a woman as Chief Costa stated.
In the spirit of preventing further or future similar occurrences of sexual harassment and violation of employees rights based on gender, the organization should have laid off every employee who took part in any form of sexual harassment or who might have facilitated the same. Further, the department should have collaborated with legal authorities so that justice could have been served. The organization also needed to have ensured gender balance in terms of employees and the officials so that neither the female nor the male gender felt like a minority and vulnerable to harassment. In this particular case, the number of women employees should have been increased so that the chances of sexual harassment would have reduced. To this end, emergency departments should set stringent regulations and rules that cut across both genders dealing with sexual harassment in departments by not only superiors but also co-workers. Departments should further lay down mechanisms to ensure that the rules are implemented and that they function optimally.
To avoid liability, the Providence City Fire department should prove that during the sexual harassment occurrences, none of its leaders was aware, and if they were, it should evidence that they tried to remedy the situation. By so doing, the employee (O’Rourke) would have been the only liable party.
References
O'Rourke v. City of Providence, 77 F. Supp. 2d 258 (D.R.I. 1999) District Court, D. Rhode Island https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/2308593/orourke-v-city-of-providence/
Marshall, A. M. (2017). Confronting sexual harassment: The law and politics of everyday life . Routledge.
United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit. Julia M. O'ROURKE, Plaintiff, Appellee, v. CITY OF PROVIDENCE, Defendant, Appellant. https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-1st-circuit/1365206.html
