HOUSTON -- The firefighter at the center of an investigation involving racist and sexist allegations at the Houston Fire Department says she can’t return to work due to a letter written by a fire captain.
Last July, Jayne Draycott and another female firefighter reported racist and sexist graffiti scrawled outside their firehouse lockers. Draycott has been on leave with pay since the incident.
Her lawyer said Wednesday was supposed to be her first day back at work, but all that changed after she found out what was written in the letter that was read during a meeting at the firehouse.
Fire Chief Phil Boriskie, members of his command staff, a department psychologist and firefighters with station 54 attended the morning meeting. It was a meeting meant to allow firefighters to put everything on the table and talk about their concerns.
“She felt ambushed for one,” said Draycott’s attorney Joe Ahmad. “She didn’t know the captain was going to read the letter with everyone there. That really did not put her in a good light and suggested she did something wrong, and as a result of the complaint some of the firefighters in the department said it made them look bad.”
11 News was not able to obtain a copy of the letter that was read at the meeting.
Sources say at one point during the meeting, Draycott was told the controversy led to a heart attack for one firefighter and the divorce of another. Fellow firefighters never told her they blamed her for the graffiti, but she got the feeling they suspected she could be involved.
“It was pretty obvious that after the letter was read the people at the station aren’t ready for her to go back to work,” said Ahmad.
Ahmad said Draycott came to a mutual decision with Chief Broiskie that she will go back on leave with pay.
The Houston Professional Firefighters Association is caught in the middle.
“It’s a difficult place to be,” said Local 341 President Jeff Caynon. “It’s imperative to us that everyone involved has their rights protected.”
Caynon did not attend the meeting, but a representative from Local 341 was there. Caynon spoke with that representative after the meeting.
“There was never a time that people started piling on. I think they had, by all accounts, a productive conversation about what happened and how everybody felt and I think they got those issues out on the table,” he said.
They are issues Draycott’s attorney believes will not be resolved until it’s determined who’s behind the graffiti.
The Office of Inspector General is investigating. There was no word on when the investigation will be complete.
The Houston Fire Department did not want to comment.
