Lesbian firefighter and paramedic Rebecca Reynolds is set to receive a $1.3 million payout from Kansas City after allegedly facing years of abuse and discrimination from her male coworkers.
The 61-year-old first responder claims to have faced harassment due to her sexual orientation, gender, and age. After one colleague, firefighter Pleaze Robinson III, allegedly urinated on her personal belongings in her office while she was away last year, Reynolds sued. Robinson was identified through DNA, charged with felony harassment, and arrested in April, according to the Kansas City Star.
On Tuesday, the City Council’s finance committee recommended a $1.3 million settlement to compensate Reynolds for the abuse she has faced during her 21-year tenure. The payout is expected to be approved by the full city council Thursday. It will mark the largest discrimination settlement the city has ever agreed to involving the fire department, according to the Star.
The settlement, however, does come with stipulations. If the payout is granted, Reynolds has agreed to drop two pending discrimination lawsuits, filed in 2023 and 2024, and refrain from filing another in relation to the urination incident last year.
Since graduating the city fire department academy at the age of 40, Reynolds claims she has faced “abusive conduct” from coworkers and superiors, according to a petition for damages filed in April.
“Plaintiff has been screamed at by superiors, who have told her, among other things, that she was “not normal” because of her sexual orientation,” the document reads.
Reynolds alleges she was “intentionally tripped” by a coworker last year, which caused a knee injury so severe it required surgery. She also says her authority as a paramedic was consistently undermined and, on one occasion, she was even physically prevented from assisting a patient by a coworker who previously harassed her.
After attempting to discuss the discrimination with her Battalion Chief, she was allegedly retaliated against in the form of “changes in her work assignments, resulting in a loss of income,” according to the petition.
Reynolds has not commented on the possible settlement. Her attorney, Bert Braud of the Popham Law Firm, told the Star, “[The city] didn’t really have much of a choice but to get this resolved.”
