Nursing School in Brockton Charged with Deceiving Students, Teaching Without License

BROCKTON, MA - A for-profit school that operated in Boston faces new charges from the state.

Attorney General Maura Healey announced Wednesday that Hosanna College of Health has been sued over allegations that it operated without a license and misrepresented its training programs, leaving dozens of students in Massachusetts without promised careers in nursing.

In a complaint filed in Suffolk Superior Court, Hosanna College of Health and its two founding executives, Jackson Augustin and Michelle Desarmes are accused of recruiting students from the Boston area’s Haitian community to take nursing classes in Massachusetts. Since 2013, they allegedly falsely promised that the education would allow them to easily pass the mandatory national board exam in nursing, become licensed nurses in Massachusetts, and obtain full-time, well-paid nursing jobs.

“These students invested their hopes and dreams in this program, but instead paid thousands of dollars for an ineffective, low-quality education that failed to provide a path to a nursing career,” Healey said in a statement. “We allege that this school aggressively recruited and misled students from the Haitian community in order to generate a profit. Our office will continue to investigate and act against predatory schools that take advantage of students in Massachusetts.”

The South Florida-based school not licensed to offer classes or grant degrees in Massachusetts. According to the complaint, classes were held in temporary spaces in Brockton and Randolph and were taught by Hosanna employees. Some classes were taught by Augustin and Desarmes, who came to Massachusetts periodically to recruit students and oversee classes. The school’s headquarters currently operates out of a rented building in South Florida.

Some students paid over $10,000 for their education, according to the Attorney General’s office. Instead of seeking opportunities locally, students were required to pay more money to travel to Florida for clinical training that was sometimes as simple as watching a video on labor and childbirth.

As of October 2015, less than 3 percent of Hosanna graduates had passed the national board exam in nursing, according to the Attorney General’s office.

As part of their complain, the Attorney General’s office is seeking restitution for students, including the return of tuition and fees, money students paid to cover travel expenses to Florida for clinical training, along with civil penalties and injunctive relief for the school’s unfair and deceptive conduct.

Information in this article was provided by the Massachusetts Attorney General’s office. Arrests and charges do not imply conviction.