A former academic administrator at the ITT Technical Institute in Springfield has joined the growing number of former employees and students filing suit after the abrupt shutdown last week of the national for-profit college.

Ruby Blackwell was an academic dean at the Springfield school, located inside White Oaks Mall. St. Louis attorney Brandon Wise, who is representing Blackwell, said Monday she previously worked at an ITT Tech school in Alabama.

The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Springfield a day after the Sept. 6 shutdown claims ITT Tech failed to provide employees with 60 days notice required by “mass layoff” provisions of the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act. The lawsuit seeks wages, bonuses, commissions, unused vacation days, health-care benefits and 401k contributions that would have been paid during the 60 days. Wise said the lawsuit also seeks class-action status for all laid off ITT employees.

ITT Tech employed approximately 8,000 at campuses nationwide, including 4,100 full-time employees. The Springfield school had approximately 45 employees, according to state employment officials.

The lawsuit filed on behalf of Blackwell alleges ITT Tech executives failed to warn employees of the severity of the situation even though the fate of the company had been sealed by a months-long investigation of ITT Tech finances by the U.S. Department of Education. ITT Tech campuses shut down less than two weeks after the department announced federal student loans could no longer be used to enroll students.

Early last year, the federal Securities and Exchange Commission filed suit in federal court in Indiana alleging two ITT Tech executives had fraudulently hidden the company’s poor financial condition from investors.

“ITT Tech’s impending failure was known to it since at least 2014,” said the lawsuit filed on behalf of Blackwell. “Still, ITT Tech shielded its employees from the ever-approaching doom, until it dropped its Sept. 6 bombshell.”

Blackwell was advised Sept. 2, according to the lawsuit, that Sept. 6 would be a paid “comp day” and that going to work was not required. The lawsuit adds that local employees were advised during a conference call with ITT Tech district managers that “certain news was coming, without revealing the character of this news,” and that they should monitor their email for an important announcement.

The lawsuit states that Blackwell took the day off as advised on Sept. 6.

“However, on Sept. 6, 2016, plaintiff (Blackwell) received an email stating that she was terminated and another email stating that ITT Tech was closing.”

A series of employee and student lawsuits have been field nationwide, including Indiana, Delaware and Georgia. Wise said it was possible the employee lawsuits would be consolidated in Indiana, where ITT Tech was based.

— Contact Tim Landis: tim.landis@sj-r.com, 788-1536, twitter.com/timlandisSJR.