Tong Calls On Stone Academy Leaders To Make ‘Horrible Situation Right’

HARTFORD, CT — Connecticut Attorney General William Tong is accusing Stone Academy of trying to re-write history, and to “falsely blame its mismanagement and abrupt closure on state officials, and to shirk responsibility for the serious harm they have inflicted on their nursing students.”

In a letter to Stone Academy’s attorney Perry Rowthorn, Tong denounces what he said are the company’s calculated maneuvers and aggressive public relations campaigns designed to “obfuscate and mislead” the public, its own students, state officials and lawmakers.

“Stone is the bad actor here, and it is Stone and its ownership and management who engaged in what is clearly a long-running course of misconduct,” Tong wrote in the letter. “Stone unilaterally shut down and stranded its students and graduates. There are no alternative facts here. This is a fact beyond dispute. No amount of misdirection is going to change that, and Stone’s attempts to blame its misconduct and decision to shut down on its state and federal regulators is as absurd as a driver who is prosecuted for driving 100 miles an hour blaming his arrest on the state trooper who pulled him over.”

Tong’s letter details the timeline of engagement between Stone Academy, the State Office of Higher Education, and the U.S. Department of Education leading up to Stone’s own “hasty decision to shut its operations with no plan to assist its students in completing their education,” according to a news release.

Tong’s letter also responds to what he called an inadequate so-called “teach-out plan” drafted by Stone to “deflect blame for its own failures.” Stone has refused to disclose the identity of the institution that would carry out the plan, and has said nothing about who would pay for the plan, how many students could be accommodated, and how they would be identified, according to Tong.

“The so called 'teach-out plan' described in the May 12th letter lacks any meaningful details and, critically, no real financial commitment to make this right for Stone’s students and graduates,” Tong wrote. “Instead, the May 12th letter feels like another public relations ploy to deflect and avoid blame prior to completion of the formal student record review.”

Read more from the news release below:

Tong is leading an active investigation into potential violations of the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act by Stone Academy and its leaders. Tong has sought court orders to force compliance with this investigation and will continue to take all appropriate measures to pursue this matter aggressively.

Stone Academy has sought discussions to resolve the state’s pending investigation and potential claims against Stone, yet the company and its leaders continue to withhold basic information from the state that would be necessary to commencing any such discussions, including financial disclosures.

“I will not consider any resolution until Stone and its members and affiliates answer all of the requests for information set forth in the pending Civil Investigative Demands, and fully disclose all financial information that I have separately requested,” Tong wrote in the letter. “I can only interpret Stone's failure to provide this information to mean that it is not serious about resolution of the state’s investigation and claims.”

Tong concludes with a stern warning to Stone’s counsel that the Office of the Attorney General will continue to “aggressively pursue Stone, its members and affiliates, to hold them accountable and to help and vindicate the students Stone has abandoned.”

“There are no easy political and public relations solutions that will help Stone now,” Tong wrote. “This is a law enforcement matter. The only way forward for Stone and its principals is to put all of their money on the table and do everything they can to make this horrible situation right.”