Dade Medical College closes all 6 campuses

Students say they received news via email Friday evening

HIALEAH, Fla. – Dade Medical College, a for-profit school that specializes in training nurses and other health care workers, has closed all six of its college campuses. Students said they received the news via email Friday evening.

Some, like nursing student Tallulah Hinds, were on their way to class when they saw the email on their smartphones.

"I'm dressed for school," said Hinds, wearing white scrubs. "It was closed down as if it was abandoned."

"When I [came] in I said, 'Oh my God. All of the school is closed,'" said nursing student Sonia Marin.

Some students said they don't know how to get their transcripts. Others who say they paid tuition in advance fear they won't get their money back.

The Miami Herald has reported extensively on the for-profit school's financial troubles.

A teacher told Local 10 News he had not been paid in three weeks.

"No one knows where to go," said anatomy teacher Ramon Gonzalez. "I don't know where to go to ask for my money - everything has been closed."

The email, sent by the school's founder, Ernesto Perez, did not mention the reason for the closures. It read, in part: "I want to thank each and every one of you for believing in us every time we may have faltered."

A representative with the Florida Department of Education said it is "working with the school to place students in other schools in the area that have similar programs."

"I'm a mother and I work a full-time job," Hinds said. "So this is something that shouldn't be taken lightly."

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