Feb. 06--Early Thursday afternoon, the same day that Marinello Schools of Beauty closed its doors amid fraud allegations, two former students, Kristen Allen and Desiree Morris, were sitting on a bench near the shuttered school in Burbank, still reeling from the news.
"They didn't [give] us any time, any notice to transfer to another school," Allen said.
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The school's closure in Burbank followed the U.S. Department of Education's announcement Monday that it would cut federal funding to about two dozen Marinello campuses in California and Nevada.
The Office of Federal Student Aid found that Marinello was underawarding federal aid to students and "knowingly" requesting federal aid for students based on invalid high school diplomas, according to a statement from the department of education.
As Marinello students, Allen and Morris said they each accumulated several hundred hours of cutting and coloring hair as well as providing facials, manicures and pedicures.
Their goal was to reach 1,600 hours before taking an exam to earn theircosmetology licenses.
Now, the students are concerned about where they will turn to complete their program.
"I'm terrified. They're literally just dropping us out of nowhere," Morris said.
Rosemary Wilson, a spokesperson for Marinello Schools of Beauty, said the chain is focused on helping students continue to pursue their education.
"We are working hard, and we are well into the process of arranging partnerships with other schools that would enable our students to complete their coursework," she said.
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Kelly Corrigan, kelly.corrigan@latimes.com
Twitter: @kellymcorrigan
