NASSAU, BAHAMAS — A student said she had a mental breakdown when her hopes of soon becoming an emergency medical technician were dashed by her discovery that the Bahamas Medical Learning Center, the institution offering the course she took, was not approved to provide the service.
S Brown is now trying to get back the money she spent on the programme, including her tuition and the costs associated with the materials and uniform. She said she wants to enroll in a programme offered by a “credible” institution.
She is one of four women who gave testimony in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday about how they left the BMLC after learning that the institution’s EMT course was not approved by the Health Professions Council.
The women – Brown, Keisha Jones, Rashae Watkins, and Patricia Pedican – do not have a lawyer.
They have sued BMLC founder and director Elwood Rolle and his wife.
Brown, referring to Rolle, said: “He wasted my time not letting us know the school wasn’t accredited.”
“I don’t work but I still found a way to pay my school fee.”
“I had a mental breakdown a month ago when all this weighted down on me.”
Brown said she now requires counseling at Sandilands Rehabilitation Center, an expensive undertaking while unemployed.
“It is not fair for this to turn out like this,” she said.
Magistrate Kendra Kelly is presiding over the trial.
The woman testified that they enrolled in the BMLC’s EMT course last October, paying about $2,300 each for tuition.
They said five months into the programme they learned that the EMT course had not been approved by the HPC.
Convinced that this means they cannot be licensed even if they complete the programme, they dropped out.
They claim that when they brought their concerns about the course’s approval status and the quality of education at the institution to Dr Rolle, he called an emergency meeting and offered to reimburse them a part of their tuition.
The women handed the magistrate a number of documents that they say are relevant to their case, including emails from the HPC which allegedly confirm that the BMLC’s EMT course had not been approved.
Pedican said she also contacted the National Accreditation and Equivalency Council (NAECOB) and confirmed the school is not registered with that body.
Watkins said when she learned the school was not registered, she confronted Rolle.
“He lied to me in my face,” she said. “He said what I heard is false information.”
At the start of the trial, Rolle’s lawyer, Philip Lundy, consulted his client on settling the case by reimbursing the full tuition to the women. Rolle, however, declined to do this, deciding the women should only get a partial refund because they began the course.
The women submitted as evidence an email chain that includes an alleged email from a teacher at the BMLC who recently resigned.
“The teacher,” Pedican said, “advised (Rolle) to shut down the programme because the paperwork was not in order and what he was doing was technically illegal.”
The case was adjourned so that the teacher could be brought in to testify.
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