PHOENIX (CN) — As ITT Educational Services shut down its 137 campuses last week, stranding 35,000 students just before the fall term, it was hit with a civil lawsuit from an employee who says it ignored her complaints about a violent student who sexually assaulted and shot her — and it fired her on her first day back at work.
ITT shut down all of its campuses on Sept. 6 after the U.S. Department of Education barred it from accepting students who receive federal aid.
In its Aug. 25 order, the Department of Education gave the chain college 30 days to post a $152 million surety bond to cover tuition refunds and other liabilities.
ITT shares dropped by more than one-third, and on Sept. 6 the chain announced it was closing all of its schools immediately.
Also that day, former ITT "enrollment representative" Kristen Trease sued the company in Phoenix Federal Court, seeking punitive damages for harassment and retaliation.
She says ITT Technical Institute "completely and utterly ignor(ed)" her complaints of sexual harassment "at the hands of a student with a known, violent, sexual criminal history."
Carlos Webb enrolled at the Phoenix campus in 2011, and Trease was his representative. Webb already had been convicted in New Mexico of rape, kidnapping and burglary, and wore an ankle monitor at the time of his enrollment, Trease says in the lawsuit.
Soon after Webb was admitted, he made sexual advances to her and asked her out on dates, and though she complained to supervisors and told them she was scared of Webb, due to his advances and his criminal history, ITT Tech "took no steps to investigate her complaints nor cease Mr. Webb's unwelcomed conduct of a sexual nature," the lawsuit states.
Webb removed his ankle monitor and was sent back to prison, but ITT Tech readmitted him in 2012, Trease says. Again assigned to help Webb, he told her to get him an identification badge for him, but to "keep it and rub it all over her chest," she says.
She complained to her supervisors again, but no one investigated because they didn't want to lose Webb's tuition, Trease says.
Trease's attorney Ty Taber told Courthouse News that ITT Tech refused to act despite a string of complaints against Webb.
"Nothing is done," Taber said. "The multiple opportunities that ITT and similarly situated employers have to do something and they don't do anything. ... I guess that's what happens when you have a for-profit business. The emphasis is on profit."
On April 24, 2012, as Trease tried to leave campus at 8 p.m., Webb approached her and said he needed to talk. When she declined, Webb told her, "I'm going to do something crazy; go to your car."
As she backed away from him, Webb held a gun to her neck, said, "You knew I liked you; you should have been with me," then forced her across the street and sexually assaulted her.
A motorcyclist drove by, heard Trease's cries for help and shined a light toward her. She broke free from Webb, and he shot her through the chest.
Another of Trease's attorneys, Burr Shields, described her as a "trouper."
"She was shot right through her chest, and her collarbone was broken during the assault as well, and that still needs surgery," Shields said.
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