Stone Academy, a defunct for-profit nursing school that had campuses in Connecticut, has tentatively agreed to a $5 million settlement over a lawsuit stemming from fraud allegations made by former students.
The announcement was made Friday by Connecticut Attorney General William Tong.
“Five million is a lot of money,” Tong said. “There's a big settlement in a case like this, and part of that is why we went so hard. We were so aggressive, because we wanted to make sure that we got as much money for students.”
The settlement comes after former students sued over allegations by the state that the school deceived students into thinking they could become licensed practical nurses in two years, and failed to provide them a satisfactory education.
Tong said the students will get most of the money from the settlement, but cautioned the students who filed a class action lawsuit still have to approve of the settlement, but he is confident they will.
While Tong said the students will get monetary restitution, one of the instructors at the school, Shavon Russell, said Stone Academy’s owner, Joseph Bierbaum, seemingly cared more about money than providing students with a good education.
"I don't know if he has a heart to understand the sacrifice that these ladies made and some gentlemen and that the sacrifice the instructors made to come to a school that was not running well, and to really waste a lot of time,” Russell said.
Russell taught at the school for nearly two years after working as a school nurse for 25 years.
Lisa Palmer, who was the director of nursing at Stone Academy, said the school’s standards were lax, and it was seemingly focused on making a profit.
“They were dropping class scores. They were letting people pass that should not pass because they wanted them in the system for the money, in my opinion,” Palmer said.
Tong said $150,000 from the settlement will be used by former students for their education.
The settlement also includes efforts to help students enter remedial programs and transfer to other nursing schools such as Griffin Hospital School of Allied Health Careers, according to the attorney general’s office.
Russell said some students will end up graduating earlier than others, depending on which schools they end up going to.
“I have students that were at the beginning, and so they had to go to Griffin and start from the beginning,” Russell said. “I had students transfer to Lincoln Tech, and so those, some of those students, are going to be finished.”
Tong said Bierbaum will be barred from working at any college in Connecticut for five years. Other owners of the school will face greater scrutiny, he said.
“If anyone in Stone Academy's ownership wants to open or operate another for profit school in Connecticut, they have to notify the office of the Attorney General, first,” Tong said.
