CLEARFIELD - A former employee of the Clearfield County Career and Technology Center has filed a whistleblower lawsuit, claiming he was fired for retaliation.
According to the complaint, Franklin Walk had been working at CCCTC since October of 2004 as a computer systems administrator.
The complaint said sometime in 2016, executive director Elizabeth Frankhouser asked Walk to repair her computer.
Walk removed the hard drive and installed a new one, keeping the old parts in his office.
According to the complaint, Walk was informed on March 19, 2017, that Frankhouser was showing sexually explicit images to staff members on her cellphone.
Walk then retrieved the old hard drive he had removed from Frankhouser's computer and brought it home to see if any sexual images were on it as he did not want that to infect the school's computer system.
The complaint said that Walk did find inappropriate images on the hard drive and he anonymously delivered the images to a supervisor.
It is believed that Frankhouser was "permitted to resign immediately" after the findings, according to the complaint.
Walk initially did resist admitting that he was the whistleblower out of fear of reprisal, but once confronted, he admitted the images were found as a result of his work, the complaint reads.
According to the suit, Walk was suspended and ultimately fired for "removing school property from the school."
Walk is seeking payment of back wages, missed pension and other fringe benefits.
CCCTC's attorney Carl Beard has filed a motion to dismiss, and a hearing for preliminary objections is scheduled for Jan. 10 at 11:30 a.m.
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