Whether they attend class or not, the students have to pay $100.
Some of the students have been attending school for eight months. Three weeks ago they found out that the college does not supply them with a certificate they were told they would get, in order to obtain the medical positions they want.
The students are all studying medical assisting and they paid $16,000 for an eight-month course. They were told the credits earned at the school do not transfer to any community or four-year college and that has many of them angry.
"So say I want to go out and get me a job in the medical field right now I can't. I don't have a diploma to present to them that says I've officially graduated," Everest College student Kiara Dunbar said." I graduated in December. I finished my externship in the middle of December. It is March now, you are supposed to get a diploma at least two weeks after you grad out. You have to grad out within three days or it's like you never came."
"I haven't gotten a phone call to say, you know, to say it's taking a while or anything," Everest College student Nakita Dunbar said.
Eduardo Hernandez was after a credential that would lead to a job and will now have to pay for another school.
"It says we are not accredited by the AAMA. If you go looking for jobs in certain hospitals they will tell you right up front they will not accept anyone not accredited by the AAMA," he said.
That's what students are being told by the American Association for Medical Assistants. They claim to have found out about the accreditation problem after they were deep into the program and had paid their non-refundable tuition
And Veronica Munson, teacher who was fired, says she was told to keep students in the dark.
"Every director of education told us 'do not discuss that [accreditation] with the students," she said.
After four years at the college, she was fired after taking students off campus to lunch -- a trip she says she had permission for from her supervisor.
ABC7 talked to the state Medical Assistant's Education Review Board and found the Hayward Campus is one of several Everest operates in California that the board say is not accredited to credential medical assistants. In a statement to ABC7 Everest College writes: "Everest College-Hayward maintains quality standards and is accredited by the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges (ACCC), a national accrediting agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education."
The AAMA told ABC7 that the accreditation the college mentions is one that is given to any career school or college in order to operate. It doesn't mean they can certify medical assistance.
