Louisiana State Board of Cosmetology Chairman Edwin Neill, III
In today’s Sound Off Louisiana feature, founder Robert Burns expands on an initial joint investigation in which he and KLFY Channel 10 in Lafayette exposed unauthorized “observers” at the W. D. and Mary Smith Career Academy in Lafayette, Louisiana. The school, a public school within the Lafayette Parish School System, buses in students from area high schools for career instruction. One such area of instruction is cosmetology classes, for which the lead instructor is Kevin Martin. According to numerous sources, Martin has routinely permitted unauthorized “observers” to attend and obtain credit toward either a cosmetology teaching certificate (for which sources have indicated W. D. Smith is not authorized to offer) or cosmetology licenses for “holdover students,” which are students having already graduated high school but whom Martin is said to have invited back the next year to earn the final 500 hours needed to take the state licensing test to obtain their cosmetology licenses. The feature follows:
Investigative report on Kevin Martin, lead instructor at the W. D. and Mary Smith Career Academy’s cosmetology department, permitting unauthorized “observers” (one of whom is nearly 60 years old) to sit in on his classroom instruction and earn credit toward cosmetology teaching licenses or cosmetology licenses.
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