If I could leave negative stars, I would. This school has been reported to the State of Illinois. Mr. Kearney does not respond to emails and when he has an unhappy parent, he responds with angry phone calls, cursing and belligerence. He threatened to cancel my son's permit because he didn't like my complaint. I admit I was angry because I have emailed this school a number of times and they never reply. I tried to confirm in advance that we were attending the correct make up classes and ultimately showed up one Thursday and left my son there to find out there was no instructor. When I asked Mr. Kearney about the classes I had on my calendar, he refused to acknowledge they even existed at one point. I had a screen shot of the classes, but he still ignored it and refused to acknowledge the existence of the classes. Nonetheless, he said my son would have to make up the classes in the future but he could take his final exam any Sunday at 5pm. I didn't understand how he could take a final exam when he has classes to make up but Mr. Kearney assured me it was no big deal. At the time, I didn't think we would have a Sunday until late June and I was trying to get this done. Mr. Kearney uses his personal cell phone to call you when his business voicemail is full (and it's always full). Mr. Kearney apparently objects to receiving text messages on this personal cell phone despite the fact that he uses it for business. After sending an email to confirm my son's attendance at a final exam two weeks ago, I followed up with a text because after the previous communication issues, I wanted to be sure I wasn't driving him to an empty classroom again. Mr. Kearney strongly objected to my text message and called me VERY angrily that Sunday. My husband is a witness to Mr. Kearney's behavior on the telephone. He cursed, yelled and threatened to have my son's permit canceled because we "don't know his situation" and "he's trying to find a babysitter..." Mr. Kearney continued to yell and curse at me and when my husband heard this, he took over the call. Mr. Kearney continued to yell and act very angry. My husband eventually got Mr. Kearney to calm down enough to ensure that he confirmed my son would attend his exam that evening. It was agreed at that time that Mr. Kearney would speak to my husband going forward. That evening, I followed up with an email (copied my husband) to confirm the classes that needed to be made up and the dates. I received no reply. I followed up some days later to ask about these classes, again, there was no reply. This past Thursday, I called the school so I could learn the results of my son's exam, as it had now been over a week later. My son as told that the results would be emailed to us by the instructor who proctored the exam. The school voicemail box was full and at the end there is an option to send an SMS message, which I did. Mr. Kearney called me back later that day and when he learned which student I was calling about, he refused to speak with me further and said exam results aren't emailed and the instructor was incorrect in saying that. He then said he "thought we agreed your husband would make the calls". I had four witnesses to this conversation with Mr. Kearney as he was on speaker phone. I was pleasant and simply asking for the test results. He refused to provide them. Since this call, my husband has followed up with an email asking to confirm the school dates to make up and the results of the exam my son took two weeks ago. There has been no reply.
This school has been reported to the State of Illinois. I have paid over $400 for this school. We have only a few classes left and six hours of driving. If I could transfer the remainder to any other school, I would. Alternatively, I would accept a refund.
Mr. Kearney seems to think it's acceptable behavior to punish a student because he doesn't like a parent. Further, Mr. Kearney's anger is frightening and I question his ability to teach anyone to drive, let alone teenagers. He may not have liked that I got angry about the scheduling confusion but simply replying to my email would have cleared it up. He claims my email went to junk. Either way, when we spoke on the phone, he denied any wrongdoing and put the full blame on me, the parent. read more