I recently enrolled my 15 year old daughter in this school for driver's ed. The first problem I encountered was that she informed me that she was to sign up for 6 hours of driving alone with the instructor (middle age male). I called immediately to inquire and was informed she could do it with a friend. This however would double the time they would have to schedule as they would each take a turn driving for 90 min while the other observed. They would have to book four 3 hour sessions (for a total of 12 hours). The other girls (if going alone) would only have to book 6 as they would be allowed to observe with their parents. Then after 2 weeks of class, I called again to inquire if anyone smoked in the classroom. My daughter had been congested for those 2 weeks and had even gone into respiratory distress a few days earlier. Because she had immediate improvement on inhaled steroid medication, it occurred to me it might be smoke since I had smelled it the first day of class. I had asked my daughter about whether it bothered her and she said she was fine and not to say anything! To the instructor's credit, they admitted that they did smoke in both the room the kids were in and in the cars the kids drove in while the kids were not present. They did offer to stop and open the doors to air it out. I informed them her pediatrician would not allow her to be in the room as the smoke is now in the carpets, etc and would not dissipate by opening the doors. My daughter has both an airway problem and asthma. I called the owner of Michaels and verbalized the problem and asked if we could just switch locations to complete the class. He said the Secretary of State would not allow it as it would be a roster change.He said he would refund her money and she would have to start over. When I asked if he would allow the location change if my husband got permission from the secretary of state, he then became rude which is my main problem. He said he didn't know if the other location smelled like smoke and he asked my repeatedly how he was supposed to make sure that no smoking occurred in the different Michael's locations! I told him it was not my concern since it was his business. I then reminded him that his instructors broke the law and I didn't appreciate my daughter paying the price! He said he wasn't sure he did break the law since his school is privately owned. When I said he possibly hadn't heard the last of me, he said I was the first to complain in 60 years and he didn't appreciate my "threat" after offering to refund my money. I must say he did follow through with refunding my money, but I definitely think everyone should know that they do allow middle men to drive alone with 15 year old girls( they say the families request it because of difficulty scheduling) and that they will not guarantee a smoke free environment. read more
