RICHMOND Va.—A federal judge has approved a $5 million class action settlement between a two-year college and thousands of primarily African-American students saddled with loans in return for what their attorneys called a sham education in which teachers sometimes failed to show up for classes.
The settlement involves the former Richmond School of Health and Technology, now operating as Chester Career College. The for-profit school offers classes leading to careers in nursing, massage therapy and other medical-related fields.
U.S. District Judge John A. Gibney entered a final order Thursday requiring the school to establish the fund and to reimburse more than 4,000 students and for attorneys’ fees.
The settlement also requires Chester Career College to institute changes that will provide prospective students with “much more transparency” before they enroll, said John P. Relman, the attorney representing eight students who brought the class action.
The college specifically courted inner city students with ads on hip-hop stations and other media aimed at their demographic.
“This is where they trolled for business,” Relman said Friday. “They boasted that they were on the bus line. In Richmond, that’s vernacular for minority community.”
The college enrolled “almost exclusively” students who qualified for federal financial aid, primarily in the form of student loans, the students’ attorneys wrote in the complaint.
