Firing of worker in NE Ohio school shooting upheld

CLEVELAND (AP) — An appeals court has upheld the firing of a maintenance worker who took cellphone photos after a fatal northeast Ohio school shooting in February 2012.

The estate of Perry Yowell filed the appeal after a lower court ruled Yowell shouldn’t have received jobless benefits.

Yowell was fired after school officials learned he’d taken photos of blood inside the Chardon High School cafeteria after the shooting victims had been removed. T.J. Lane, now 20, is serving life sentences for killing three students as they waited for a morning bus.

Yowell died three months after the lower court ruled the firing was proper. Yowell’s estate appealed to prevent having to pay back jobless benefits Yowell had received.

The 11th District Court of Appeals issued the 2-1 ruling last week.