PENSACOLA, Fla. — Tens of thousands of students are in limbo. 8,000 people are without jobs. Pensacola woman says her paycheck from "ITT Technical Institute" wouldn't even clear the bank. That wasn't the only loss for the new employee.
Donna Collins had just accepted a position as Dean at the ITT Mobile Campus. She started work on September 1st, was out of a job by the 6th, and got her first and last paycheck on the 12th.
Collins said "When I received my paycheck I took it to the bank, and then the bank turned around and called me yesterday, telling me it had been returned for non-sufficient funds."
As Dean, Collins was slated to be the number two person on campus. She knew the company was having issues, but was told it would stay in business for another 18 months. Instead, all she had to show was one paycheck for $850.
"Which to me being a senior citizen, living just on Social Security, that's a chunk of change," said Collins.
Collins wanted to file complaints with the US Department of Labor, and the Department of Labor in Indiana, where ITT was based, but she was told they only deal with hourly workers, not people on salary.
She wonders how many other employees across the country are in the same boat she is.
She wonders if she'll find another opportunity like the one she thought she had.
She explained, "It hurts me personally When you are dealing with somebody my age, it's hard for us to get jobs. When you finally get a decent one and then something like this happens to you, it's life damaging."
The State Attorney's Office has a specific procedure for recovering payment and fees from a bad check. Collins is going through that process.
At this point, they have not received any other complaints regarding ITT Technical Institute.