Officer fired at Gainesville youth center

GAINESVILLE - State officials have fired a correctional officer they say had an inappropriate relationship with an Athens teenager who was being held in the Gainesville Regional Youth Detention Center.

The Athens Banner-Herald reports that the officer was fired by the Department of Juvenile Justice on Thursday, the latest in a series of terminations and disciplinary actions involving employees at Georgia youth centers. the newspaper identified the fired officer as Ardith Brown.

Earlier this week, a corrections officer was fired from the Augusta Youth Development Campus following allegations of inappropriate contact with a youth there. That was the ninth worker to be fired at the Augusta youth center since November.

Department of Juvenile Justice spokesman Jim Shuler would not specify the nature of the inappropriate relationship at the Gainesville center.