King County Superior Court Judge Cheryl Carey’s verdict in Lanora Hackett’s lawsuit against Vashon Island Fire & Rescue stands as a strong indictment of an agency that has seen more than its fair share of trouble.

No one knows for sure, of course, what happened inside the walls of the fire department. But Carey, a respected jurist, read reams of documents, heard days’ worth of testimony and came down unequivocally: Hackett experienced a hostile workplace, harassment and harsh treatment in her years as a volunteer at the government agency. More to the point, the judge noted, she was twice passed over for a coveted paid position, losing out to men who hadn’t scored as highly as she had in various objective tests.

Carey did not go so far as to give her the job she had worked so hard to obtain. Speaking from the bench at the courthouse in Kent on Monday, she noted — rightly — that such an order would not make sense in light of all that has unfolded. Nor did she award Hackett the $2 million she initially sought. All told, when Hackett’s legal fees are thrown in, the fire department — in part by way of its insurance company — will likely end up paying more than $500,000 to put this sorry chapter behind it.

Even so, Carey’s ruling was strong, clear and incontrovertible. Despite decades of effort by activists, lawyers, lawmakers and others to dismantle male bastions across the country, Vashon’s small fire department continued to stand as one, Carey said. Most troubling of all, top administrators did nothing to redress the issue, even after at least three women complained about the way they were sometimes treated.

The fire department’s five board members could choose to appeal Carey’s decision. Clearly, the agency believed it had a strong case or it would not have opted to go to trial. But we believe an appeal would only prolong the disruption this case has surely caused, end up costing taxpayers more money and keep the department in a state of denial about the internal work it needs to undertake.

Indeed, there’s only one course of action that makes sense here: for the department, under Chief Hank Lipe’s fresh leadership, to take a hard look at itself and work to ensure that a credible claim of discrimination can never be brought forward again. To Lipe’s credit, the fire chief, who’s been in place all of six months, issued a statement Monday noting that anti-harassment training is already under way.

A study sponsored by the Ford Foundation and reported in “The Fire Chief,” an industry publication, found that the situation Hackett and other women faced at VIFR is far from unusual. According to the study, published last year, only 3.7 percent of the nation’s 350,000 paid firefighters are women. And of those who get hired, more than 80 percent said they were treated differently from their male counterparts.

“Clearly, gender discrimination and harassment are not rapidly disappearing,” the industry publication noted.

But the fact that such situations are rampant is, of course, no justification for it here on Vashon. Indeed, it instead gives us a wonderful opportunity: Vashon can now lead the way in charting a new path for fire departments, one where women are treated fairly, respectfully and as full and equal partners in this important and life-affirming work.