ORLANDO, Fla. — Naomi Lanzo was one of the first women hired under Orlando’s civilian paramedic/EMT program. For more than four years, Lanzo worked at that job. But, after she had complications from her second pregnancy, she was fired.
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“I think what started everything that was I got sick and when I got sick, it was just kind of like downhill from there,” she said. “I was just having full-on episodes, I was just passing out. Obviously, I can’t drive, I wasn’t safe to drive, but I could work a job where I can sit down behind the desk, which they have available. They just don’t have it for us. The city doesn’t offer light duty for civilian first responders.”
So Lanzo had to take unpaid time off, then short-term disability for 15 weeks, but when that ran out, was rolled into long-term disability. Then, when she cashed her disability check, she was terminated.
“I feel like I’m being punished for being pregnant,” Lanzo said. “I found myself in a really hard financial situation. And I was like, ‘alright, well, I’m going to do this.’ And even the lump sum that I got wasn’t enough. I lost my car, one of them, and I’m in the process of losing my other one. So I lost daycare, I lost a lot of stuff, and I was behind on rent for a couple months. So yeah, I had to do what I had to do.”
Lanzo knew the risk but was going to try and work something out with the city to pay the money back later.
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A spokesperson fro the Orlando Fire Department said they can’t discuss the specifics of Lanzo’s situation, but confirmed there are no light-duty options for Lanzo. Instead, saying offering things like personal leave, modified duty, and short- and long-term disability writing, “long-term disability benefits are dispersed for a period of two years and the employee cannot perform their duties for that time period. As a result, the city process for all employees is that if they choose to accept long term disability, they can no longer perform their duties, and thus sever ties with the city.”
The city said Lanzo was notified of all of it. Documents show that Lanzo expressed her concerns after her first pregnancy in a meeting with the previous Orlando fire chief.
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She and other women at the fire department complained about treatment at the department. At the time, the Department of Justice was investigating complaints stemming from an assistant fire chief who accused a former fire chief of sexual harassment, retaliation and discrimination. The city put a task force together to deal with the women’s complaints and recruited more women at the male-dominated department. But since then, women told 9 Investigates sweeping changes have not been made for them.
Lanzo knows her career here at the city is over and doesn’t want to go back now, but was hoping that speaking out would mean change for the women who work there.
“If I don’t do it, no change is going to happen,” she said. “I don’t know if this is going to make a difference. but it’s the simple fact that this is something that’s been going on for a long time, and no change has happened. And I really want in power women and everybody else to stand up for their rights.”
Lanzo said she has not received an official letter of termination. She said she went to cash out her 401K money, but couldn’t because the city still has her listed as an employee. So right now she and her children are uninsured.
We asked the Orlando Fire Department if they would consider making a change and offer light duty in the future, but would not answer our question.
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