Responses to “A Mother’s Story About Carl D. Perkins Job Corps Center

-“This parent should contact her elected Federal representatives about this situation and demand a written accounting of this situation from the corporation that runs this center. Then she should contact a lawyer to see if she has a viable law suit against them.”

-“I’ll never forget my reaction at a meeting when I first heard students who were waiting to exit the program referred to as “inventory”.

-“What a horrible deal. The PRH clearly states that a student may leave JC anytime they want to. As a two year employee, I had to play that game often and just felt dirty (toxic is a better word) everytime. On more than one occasion I saw staff confiscate luggage that was packed and the student ready to go. On another occasion I convinced a 16 year old who wanted to leave to stay. He was clearly not ready or engaged (walking out of class constantly, being disruptive when in class etc). Several weeks later he and some friends started a fight with a group of other students. In the process, he was injured and eventually needed surgery. I felt horrible, not because of his behavior which he was responsible for, but for my salesmanship when he really was not invested in being successful in JC. On another occasion I was written up for not being convincing enough in my efforts to retain a student who wanted to leave which he eventually did. My thoughts and prayers tonight are with that young man from Perkins and his family for a full and speedy recovery.”

Filed under: Job Corps, Reader's Comments, Carl D. Perkins Job Corps

A Mother’s Story About Carl D. Perkins Job Corps

My son attended this run down facility from November 2009 to just recently February 2010. I had to pick him up from a mental hospital just one week after trying to get him back home.

My son had told me the goings on of this center and I found it disturbing that gang activity was condoned and drinking and smoking weed. My son told me the influence was every where and the staff (even security employees) did nothing to stop it.

Not wanting to be a snitch for not participating in the activities of these students makes a child stand out in this setting and my son always worried that eventually, he would be forced to do what everyone else was doing.

After several upset phone calls from my son saying, “He had enough of this place,” he called his father and me to tell us he wanted out that day because he could not take anymore of that center.

So, we we made arrangements for him to come back home with me in Atlanta. However, shortly after this phone call someone from Job Corps called his father and asked why our son wanted to leave. My son’s father told them what our son had been telling us about what was going on there. The person form Job Corps told him that our son never told them anything like that and these things “were not true.” We had no reason to disbelieve our son so, his father said “It didn’t matter. If four son wanted out of Job Corps he could come home.”

Apparently a gang of staff cornered my son while he was packing and were trying as best they could to convince him to stay and not leave {YOU KNOW THAT MEANT THEY WERE GOING TO LOSE MONEY.}

Meanwhile, as this was going on, someone from the center called my son’s dad back to say that my son “would not be provided transportation to the bus stop”, which was an hour’s drive away. My son called me and told me what Job Corps said and I told his dad to call them back and to call our son a cab and no matter what it cost we would pay it.

The next thing Job Corps came up with was telling us it would take two weeks process my son out of the program. BULLSHIT. We all know that is not true. After these phone calls went on for about 1 hour my son (I guess he was feeling defeated by these people) called us back and said he would “try to stick it out a little longer” (this was Feb 19th). On Feb 22 my son called me and with the same urgency said “get me out of here”. I told him that it would a couple of days but he would be home by Friday.

I didn’t hear anything back from my son and I discovered that his cell phone was dead so by Thursday his dad and I were trying to figure out what was going on. {HIS DAD LIVES IN ARKANSAS} Neither of us had heard anything from our son.

Friday I received a phone call from the mental hospital asking me if I could identify my son because all they had was a phone number no identification at all.

I have yet to receive a clear answer from anyone about what happened to my son. He is home with me know and diagnosed with paranoia. He has no memory of Job Corps or even that he was ever a student there. This is so frustrating for a parent who didn’t send him to Job Corps to get rid of him but, I thought he would benefit from the program.

I would never recommend this program for anyone’s child and if you know someone who is thinking of joining, tell them this story. I still don’t know what happened and the administration is close-mouthed, even when I showed up to this dump in person to get my son’s things, they still acted like they did right by my son. My child is now forever changed by this situation. If someone could tell me, when is the DOL going to realize this program is about numbers and not our kids?   -M

Carl D. Perkins

478 Meadows Branch

Prestonsburg, KY 41653-1501

Tel: (606) 886-1037

Fax: (606) 886-6048

Reply from Job Corps Fraud:

We hear stories like this over and over… we are trying to get the media to listen to us; we are contacting the press and, unfortunately, Job Corps has been around for so long and so many in power have publicly supported it, it is going to be difficult to have people stand up and take notice.Job Corps has a sophisticated method of ensuring that everything they do in the community is highly publicized. Centers are even told to get as many “good press releases” into the papers as they can. These are called “STAR” reports. Every quarter I was given a “required” task to ensure that something “postive” was submitted to the newspapers.

Tell everyone you know to share their stories here. We deeply appreciate your courage in telling us your story.  You are not alone.

Filed under: Carl D. Perkins Job Corps, Drugs, Facebook, Job Corps, Carl D. Perkins Job Corps