As a volunteer firefighter, I have been involved in several hazardous-material sessions, both as a recipient of the scrubbing and a scrubber.

Although the Linton Hall matter of Oct. 12, 2001, was handled poorly, it is easy to suggest that more females should have been on the team. It takes a great amount of practice and training to become a haz-mat team member. It is entirely possible there were no female members available or even on the team.

It also sounds as though the team and other emergency personnel reacted hastily. A better assessment of the hazards could have been made before proceeding with decontamination. Before proceeding, the team should have communicated the process to the women and should have taken all possible steps to ensure their privacy. To proceed without these common sense steps was unprofessional.

The emergency services team needs to apologize to the 15 women, and they also need to be sure such an incident never happens again.

As for the university, it has no responsibility for the actions of the emergency personnel. It does, however, have a responsibility to work as an advocate for the women and see that their concerns are addressed.

Jon P. Rutila
1977 graduate