A group of 70 students filed suit Tuesday against a private school in Norcross, alleging it misrepresented itself as accredited, defrauded them out of thousands of dollars and jeopardized their chances of becoming eligible for protection from deportation.
Filed in Gwinnett County State Court, the suit alleges some of the students enrolled at New Life Technical Academy to fulfill educational requirements of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. That federal program provides certain immigrants with temporary reprieves from deportation.
The lawsuit also alleges a school employee who helped the students apply for that program fraudulently posed as an attorney. The government has delayed or denied the vast majority of the students’ applications, the lawsuit says. They are seeking refunds and the return of documents they submitted for their deferred action applications.
Officials connected to the school did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday. But Stanley Jean, who is listed as one of the school’s managers in the lawsuit, told Mundo Hispanico this week that “we have always worked to look for solutions and we already have one.” Mundo Hispanico, like The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, is part of Cox Media Group.
“Please withdraw the lawsuit and give us 48 hours — everyone will have their issue solved,” Jean continued. “I need them to calm down, withdraw the lawsuit so we can go back to work. They have their lawyers and so do we.”
Mundo Hispanico also obtained a Nov. 19 Gwinnett County Police Department report documenting a complaint of theft by deception that a student filed against Jean.
The suit also names Mack Freeman as a defendant, saying he owns or manages a school doing business as New Life Technical Academy in Hapeville. That school issued a statement Tuesday saying it sent the Norcross school a cease and desist order regarding “the misuse and misrepresentation of our name and credentials.”
“We have only one location and never established, proposed, or maintained another facility in Gwinnett County or anywhere else,” the Hapeville school said in its statement. “We have never participated in any form of legal document preparation or misrepresentation of providing legal counsel.”
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