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WILKES-BARRE — Nearly a dozen students at Jolie Health and Beauty Academy held a protest Monday in support of an esthetics instructor who they say was forced to resign last week.
Carrying signs demanding the return of Cheryl Cook, the students began their protest in front of the academy at North Wilkes-Barre Boulevard and Coal Street just after 9:30 a.m.
Kristen Smith, of Susquehanna, who organized the rally with other students, said they plan to protest until their voices are heard in an attempt to have Cook reinstated.
Cook, of Moscow, said she had been a skin care instructor at Jolie for three years until Friday when she was forced by the academy’s campus director, Victoria Suarez, to submit her resignation. She claimed she was asked to leave after she took students’ complaints about another student to the academy’s administration.
“I had been confronted by multiple students about the conduct of a particular student who has been threatening and sexually harassing them,” Cook said. “My student body came to me with valid complaints and I followed the chain of command and voiced their complaints to (Suaraez).”
Cook claimed she was given a written reprimand for making false allegations about a student. To her surprise, Cook said she was forced to submit her resignation.
“I feel they are retaliating against me because I didn’t know how to handle these student complaints,” Cook said.
Suarez did not return a phone call for comment on Monday.
Smith, Angela Latona, of Wilkes-Barre, and Brittney Monahan, of Duryea, were among 11 students outside the academy demanding Cook be reinstated. The three women said Cook was their esthetics instructor.
Jolie Health and Beauty Academy has six campuses, with two in Pennsylvania including Wilkes-Barre and Hazleton, three in New Jersey and one in Massachusetts.
“Ms. Cheryl had no choice but to resign under false allegations,” Smith said outside the academy Monday. “She reported one student is bullying other students, threatening other students and sexually harassing other students. After she complained to the director, she was asked to resign.”
Latona said students pay about $10,000 in tuition to attend the 22-week program. Cook said she instructed those students enrolled in skin care for the first 10 weeks.
“I feel I’m not getting the education that I pay for,” Latona said.
Latona and Monahan said their replacement instructor they had on Friday was not a licensed esthetician.
Smith and Latona said there are about 80 students enrolled at the Wilkes-Barre academy.