The Technology Director for Abingdon-Avon schools has filed a civil lawsuit against the district’s Board of Education.Mark Rogers suit also names as defendants former superintendent Chad Willis, Andrew Garrett — the computer forensics investigator hired to look into a district data breach and his company Garrett Discoveries.
The suit claims that Rogers alerted then-superintendent Willis about unauthorized access to the district’s information system Skyward.
It continues that Willis and Garett pressured Rogers not to disclose violations of privacy laws to government and law enforcement agencies and the school board was aware that Rogers had or would soon report the violations.
While Garrett was said to be hired for the purposes of investigating the data breach, the filed suit says the defendants intentionally shifted the investigation’s purpose to target Rogers.
This eventually led to felony eavesdropping charges filed against Rogers and being placed on administrative leave.
He was allowed to return to work in July 2017 but board is said to have prohibited him from access to computer data programs and networks which his lawyers claim was insufficient for him to perform job duties he was obligated to perform.
Rogers is suing on seven counts including violating the Illinois School Student Records Act, intentionally inflicting emotional distress and false arrest and imprisonment.
His attorneys from the firm of Gullberg, Box, Worby and Rogers in Monmouth say in a statement that “after 14 years of faithful service to the school, Mr. Rogers was unjustly targeted and investigated.”
Worby goes on to say that “Mr. Rogers looks forward to having his day in court.”
