Vocational school ordered to reimburse tuition

Friday, Dec. 17, 2004 | 11:04 a.m.

A Las Vegas vocational school that promised students lucrative careers as medical sonographers had its license suspended Thursday after a state commission heard from angry students who said their $9,700 tuition bought them nothing but heartache and humiliation.

The Nevada Commission on Postsecondary Education is moving to revoke the license and ordered the school's owner and operator, Shaji Mathew, to reimburse tuition for a dozen students who filed complaints and testified at Thursday's daylong hearing. Most of those students paid for the 750-hour course with state and federal vocational training grants.

"It's your money that got taken ... this guy has got to be stopped," said Laurence Beall, who completed the school's program in July but has been unable to find work as a sonographer.

"This man is deliberately and fraudulently running a criminal enterprise," Beall alleged during his testimony before the commission.

The commission, an appointed panel that licenses vocational programs, ordered the school at 557 East Sahara Ave. to stop all operations during the license revocation process. In addition to having to reimburse tuition, Mathew was ordered to pay a $10,000 fine, the maximum the commission can impose.

Mathew, who was affiliated with a now defunct educational program in California, offered students remedial training at no cost. The commission turned down the offer.

The commission also voted unanimously to uphold the findings of its administrator, David Perlman, whose report showed the school failed to acquire a business license, misled students about the qualifications potential employers would demand and had insufficient instruction.

Mathew disputed the students' allegations and Perlman's findings, saying his school, which has served fewer than 100 students since he took over operations in 2002, did what it promised.

"We are making entry-level diagnostic sonographers," Mathew said. "The school's objective is to put the student in the position to be hired."

He said the curriculum was sufficient and he said the investigation came as a surprise. He said students never complained to him when they were at the school.

But student after student -- in voices choked with tears, outrage and anger -- told how they left the school with a paper certificate, a minimal understanding of how to operate sonograph equipment and not enough medical knowledge to hold a job in the field.

Medical ultrasound devices are used to produce images inside the body -- such as arteries, fetuses and internal organs -- that are then analyzed by doctors. While medical sonographers do not diagnose illness or disease, they must be able to produce a clear image and mark any apparent irregularities.

Mathew accepted students with no prior experience or education of any kind in a medical-related field -- a violation of the school's stated enrollment requirement.

"Students were allowed to enter a program without basic qualifications and therefore were not successful," commission member Maria Chairez said. "I don't have a good feeling about allowing this school to continue to operate."

Gary Waters, president of the State Board of Education and a member of the commission, asked that a summary of the hearing be sent to the Nevada Board of Medical Examiners for review. Given that vocational agencies rely on the commission's licensing process to verify quality and content of such schools, there should be more involvement and oversight by trained medical professionals, Waters said.

"I can't think of any medical field that is screaming out more loudly for greater regulation given the risk to life posed by inadequately trained people," Waters said.

Several of the students who testified at Thursday's hearing had been injured on the job and were referred to the school for re-training as part of a worker's compensation claim.

A showgirl before she injured her foot, Katherine Sellers was looking forward to earning $20 to $37 per hour as a medical sonographer.

But after being turned down by "every hospital, every doctor, every clinic" she called, Sellers learned most employers want employees who are either already accepted by the American Registry of Diagnostic Medical Sonographers or at least qualified to sit for the organization's certification exam. American Institute's program did not meet the ARDMS's educational requirements for taking the exam.

After the commission's decision was handed down, Sellers asked who would ensure that Mathew comply with the order to reimburse students. Like many of her classmates, Sellers was anxious to find another vocational program but first needed the original tuition returned to her employer's insurance company.

"How do we know this guy isn't just going to file for bankruptcy and skip out on all this?" Sellers asked.

In order to open his school Mathew had to put up a $50,000 bond, said Perlman, the commission's administrator. That money, as well as some of the commission's tuition recovery fund, will be used to reimburse American Institute's students, Perlman said.

There's no national database for vocational school licenses where state officials can report suspensions or revocations, Perlman said. He plans to send an e-mail message to his colleagues in other states once the final report on Mathew is complete.

"If he files for bankruptcy and skips town we can't touch him -- the only power we really have is to revoke licenses," Perlman said. "At least we can try and give people in other states a heads up in case he (Mathew) does decide to move on."

Debra Collins, executive director of the Las Vegas vocational outreach program CHR Inc., told the commission she helped place clients at Mathew's school, a move she now regrets. There were several red flags, Collins said. CHR sends payment for vocational programs in installments and Mathew always sent someone to the office for the check.

"They wanted the money right away. They didn't want to wait for the mail," Collins said. "That troubled me and I'm upset I didn't take more action at the time."

Several students wept as they described their embarrassment on job "tryouts" when potential employers discovered within days -- if not hours -- that they lacked the skills for the work.

One graduate of the program, Rhonda Parnell, said she was able to get and keep a job as a sonographer since earning her certificate in July. But that's only because her employer, Heart Center of Nevada, prefers to put all its new employees through its own training program, Parnell said.

"The doctors do get frustrated with me because they have to keep telling me what I'm not doing right," Parnell said. "I can't lose this job because I'll never get another one (as a sonographer)."

As evidence that his school was producing successful graduates, Mathew called Jason Plummer, who completed the program this summer and is currently working as a sonographer, as a witness. Plummer, 30, praised the program and said the students who were complaining often skipped class, spent time during lectures chatting on cell phones and didn't follow his example of putting in extra hours daily of independent study.

"You alone are responsible for your own education," Plummer said.

But Plummer also told the commission he had a bachelor's degree in pre-med from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and had worked for more than 10 years in a variety of medical-related fields, including as a paramedic. When questioned by the commissioners Plummer conceded his educational background and prior work experience likely contributed to his success as a sonographer. He also acknowledged that he is currently employed by the mother of a longtime friend.

One of the school's instructors, Vilden Varddanyan, suggested the students should have spent more time in the library and online studying sonography rather than expecting all of their knowledge to come from the classroom. His remarks were later echoed by Mathew.

That puzzled Clara Andriola, chairwoman of the commission, who pointed out that the necessity of such independent study was not included in the school's syllabus.

"You have nothing in writing saying a student had to continue their studies outside the prescribed curriculum," Andriola said.

Several students questioned Varddanyan's qualifications to teach as well as his medical credentials. When asked about them by the Sun, Varddanyan said he earned his medical degree in Armenia and was licensed as a physician in Nevada. No record of such a license could be located with either the Nevada Board of Medical Examiners or with the American Medical Association.

When pressed further by the Sun, Varddanyan refused further comment, saying his name could not appear in the newspaper because it might complicate his employment with the U.S. Department of Energy. An Energy Department spokesman this morning said there was no one named Vilden Varddanyan on its payroll and apparently never had been.

Mathew may have misreprented his credentials as well. Students say Mathew claimed to have a master's degree in business administration, displaying a diploma from West Virginia State University in his office. But in a Nov. 5 reply to an inquiry made by one of American Institute's former students, the director of registration and records for West Virginia State said Mathew was never enrolled and the university does not offer a graduate degree in business administration.