Fired social service worker files lawsuit

ERIE, Pa. (AP) -- A former employee of a center that provides services to low-income people has filed a lawsuit, claiming that he was fired not because he and other supervisors lost a child on a field trip, but because of his race.
Lester Howard was fired from the Booker T. Washington Center in August 2002, after he said he was sent on a field trip to a movie theater. He said he arrived after the movie began and helped usher children into the center's vans afterward.
Howard was later told a 12-year-old child had been left behind, he said. He was fired two days later for alleged negligence and violation of agency safety procedures.
According to his suit, Howard said he wasn't negligent because he wasn't involved in identifying children on the trip. He is also claiming a whistleblower violation, saying he was fired after reporting possible financial abuses.
The center's director, William Jeffress, declined to comment on Howard's lawsuit Friday, saying the center hadn't yet received it.