Former students file lawsuit against Virginia College

JACKSON — A federal lawsuit filed on behalf of seven women accuses Virginia College’s Jackson branch of fraud, breach of contract and negligence in its medical assistants program.

The lawsuit was filed last week in U.S. District Court in Jackson. It claims the privately operated, for-profit school didn’t prepare students for the job market and falsely certified they were qualified to be employed as medical assistants.

For example, the lawsuit says none of the plaintiffs had sufficient training in drawing blood to meet certification standards. Some students, the lawsuit claims, only drew blood from a dummy during their studies.

Whitney Barkley, staff attorney at Mississippi Center for Justice, which is representing the students, said today that the students aren’t doing enough blood draws and “sticks” for diabetes testing to be certified by the school’s own accreditation agency.

“They can’t find work. Most of them are not even getting interviews. The ones who did said they were told they would need between 50 and 100 live blood draws to even be considered for the job,” Barkley said. The students have only a fraction of that many, she said.

As a result, the former students say they’re saddled with student-loan debts, but can’t find jobs in the medical field.

The lawsuit also claims the college sought out low-income black women with targeted advertising. Most of the plaintiffs are black women.

“Defendants are engaged in a scheme of specifically targeting African-Americans by creating advertisements that primarily use African-Americans as models, purchasing advertising time during daytime programming and late night programming, employing mostly African-Americans as admission officers and advertising mostly in African-American neighborhoods,” the lawsuit said.

Jackson attorney Robert Gibbs, who represents Virginia College, said the college denies the allegations.

Gibbs said he couldn’t comment on the specific allegations in the lawsuit, but he defended the college and said it provides a quality education to many students.

“Our medical assistants program has been successfully educating and placing students in the Jackson market for over a dozen years,” Gibbs said. “If you want to look at our graduation and placement rates, and what we charge for tuition, all of that information is available for public review. All they have to do is go to our website.”

Virginia College in Jackson offers certification and associate degrees in fields like cosmetology, criminal justice and medical assisting. The school is operated by Education Corporation of America of Birmingham, Ala., a private, for-profit company.

The company was founded in 1983 and has 25 campuses across the Southeast and collected $292 million in 2011, the lawsuit said. The Jackson campus opened in 2000 and has generated revenue of more than $12 million in a year, with most of that money coming from financial aid services, according to the lawsuit.

Barkley, the attorney at Mississippi Center for Justice, said the figures came from the U.S. Department of Education.

Gibbs, the Virginia College lawyer, said the college is committed to Jackson. He said Virginia College is investing $5.1 million on a new building to expand its facilities.

The former students are being represented by the Mississippi Center for Justice, a nonprofit law firm, and Jackson attorneys Warren Martin Jr. and Kenya Martin.

The Martins sued the school last year on behalf of another group of students, claiming their program wasn’t accredited. That lawsuit is pending in the courts.

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10 Responses to “Former students file lawsuit against Virginia College”

1. george wilkerson,MD Says:
   July 24th, 2012 at 8:25 am

   Having employed a graduate of this program,she worked for 2 weeks before being fired, I can attest to the fact that the graduates are not prepared for employment as medical assistants, or for that matter much of anything else. it was heartbreaking to see a young woman(white,by the way) who believed she had been given an education for her money be so woefully unprepared. No blood work was done in my office but she was not even prepared to take vital signs, pull charts or any tasks of an assistant;. about time someone reigned in these folks ,in my opinion.

2. Phyllis Barnes Says:
   July 24th, 2012 at 5:23 pm

   I graduated in the Billing and Coding Program from Virginia College in 2010, and I agree with Dr. Wilkerson, you were not given enough training in your field. I persistently inquired several times about the ICD9 classes, and we only did billing at the end of the program for about 3 weeks. It was as if they were afraid to train us. But I think it was because they did not have enough qualified individuals to train u. I wanted to learn how to code and bill, but insteach I got lessons about the instructor’s life. In class they talked about themselves a lot and did not focus on training us. So when I went for my externship(which is a joke) the employer told us that we were not trained enough to work for him in the externship. I did beg to differ with this employer because of my former training as a banker and told him I was overqualified with my past experience, but I understood where he was coming from. They sent me to another site, of which I was overqualified to train at, then to a third site. They did not want to show me anything but to file, so I went to each one of the workers and ask for assistance. There was only one that helped, and they fired her after I left, which was an indication to me that something was not right. I graduated with honors but I did not feel like they merited me walking to pick up my diploma. I have prayed about this, and feel now, they are getting what was coming to them. I feel like $16,000 is a lot of money for you to not know what you are doing after 15 months of good for nothing classes.

3. AHHHH! Says:
   July 25th, 2012 at 7:28 am

   Okay lawyers,start running ads for lawsuits against this company! The reports will come flooding in!ju

4. Porche Says:
   July 30th, 2012 at 6:32 pm

   I was told this college was accredited now i am 20,000 in debt without a degree and transferring to the UOP. I have wasted almost two years off my life to be told that even if i got my associates no one would look at it. If I want to file a lawsuit against them how would I do it?

5. Charlotte Says:
   September 20th, 2012 at 4:47 pm

   I attended V C about 8 years ago, got an associate degree in business and had no help from them to get a job in the workforce( which is what they said they would help me with). After failing to find a job after about 1 year or so… Desperately I attended cosmetology school so that I can have an income coming into my household. After that I wanted to try to go back to school to try to get a bachelors degree but none of the colleges would allow me to transfer my college hours from them. So I was stuck with Virginia College, so eventually I tried their online course from Alabama but guess what not much success there either…..so know I have large student loans and a certificate that has no meaning to employers…. What can be done? How can we warn unexpected new students so they won’t have the same problems?

6. C. Washington Says:
   October 2nd, 2012 at 2:25 pm

   I am a graduate from the Virginia College in Biloxi, Mississippi in 2011. I graduated with almost a 4.0 average, perfect attendance from day one, execellence attendance, Dean’s list, Presidents list, and I even graduated with honors. Like the rest of the students, they made promises they didn’t honor. They never helped me find a job. I had a hard time finding someone to return my phone calls. I have had several interviews and nothing to this day. All I have to show is an Associate Degree that I now wonder if it is credited or even honor anywhere. Not to mention, they put my student loan all over my credit report and I have not even started paying for it, it was deferred. There should be something that we can do as students that have been misguided, lied to, let down, betrayed, given false hope, and left with a hefty bill to pay with no means of income coming in to pay it.

7. ketra T Says:
   December 1st, 2012 at 7:17 pm

   I am in my second semester at V.C in SC and it is a load of crap they first told me they accepted my v.a scholarship in which I have 100% free tuition after about six months of not receiving my benefits I started to investigate their lies of they were waiting to be approved by the VA say what? Isn’t this something that was suppose to be done before your doors open? There for I am already in debt 6 grand no type of income coming and I just got evicted out of my home! Then on top of all this they charged me for classes I didn’t take and when I brought THEIR error to their attention they still have not gotten back to me this about 3 grand of my money and now everyone is silent! Could someone please give me any advice? My spirit and pockets are broken! This school is indeed a joke and I honestly believe no one will employ any person who does obtain a degree from them!

8. Vicki G Says:
   February 9th, 2013 at 3:57 pm

   How do I join this lawsuit?

9. diana Says:
   March 12th, 2013 at 6:37 am

   It is not limited to MS it is here in Augusta as well, It is not limited to the MA programs, its all the programs. I too would like to join the petition.

10. m.bennett Says:
    May 10th, 2013 at 11:33 pm

    I graduated sept 2009 and i feel the same exact way “C. Washington” feels!!!!!! you took the words right out of my mouth. I went to the WIN center in bay st. louis , ms to get the help to find a job and the career services lady that worked at V C college at the time I was enrolled, was working at the WIN center and told me herself that she knew we were being mislead and couldn’t say anything!!!!!I have all these loans and i am having a hard time finding a job to even repay the loans let alone take care of two kids…I am a single parent of two children..I went to V. C trying to better my life for me and my two kids and didn’t get anything but a bogus Certificate..Not to mention NO COLLEGE will except my credits unless its virginia college and i refuse to waste anymore of my time and money at a school that isen’t worth my time!!!!