buggedparent
New Member
My daughter began school 9/1/09 at a college in NYC. By day 14 we realized that she was getting bitten by bugs at night. She reported the incident. Her roomate found a live bug in her bed so an exterminator was called. He confirmed evidence of bedbugs. The school told my daughter and her roommate to move loose contents to friends' rooms and to wash all clothing in hot water and to stay out of the room while treatment was being done. We decided, after much agonizing, to withdraw her from the school.
Our decision was a tough one since she enjoyed the school and it was too late to apply to other schools locally. However, we felt there was no choice. When we consulted a highly rated bedbug exterminator he confirmed that the school's response was inadequate and that the problem would likely continue.
In scouring the internet for info on bedbugs we became horrified by the incorrect protocol the school had used in treatment. Specifically,
__ no other rooms were inspected nor students asked.
__Removing contents was exactly the wrong thing to do since this would obviously spread the problem around.
__no other alternative room was available, my daughter would have been required to stay in the room which had been treated with chemicals.
__She would also surely have been bitten more since the exterminator told us that there would likely be increased bug activity following treatment. She is very allergic to bug bites so this was unacceptable.
__The treatment required 3 consecutive treatments performed every two weeks to even begin to see whether the problem had abated.
__Our exterminator confirmed that treating only one room in a dorm situation insured that the problem would NOT be eradicated.
The bedbug situation has become out of hand in NYC. We were petrified of bringing anything home! We threw out most of her contents. We bought a machine to heat up other contents in order to kill any bugs/eggs, and we hired the best exterminator we could find to examine my daughters room at home to make sure we brought nothing home. Obviously, this has been a great expense to our family.
The problem is that the school informed us that the policy is a 40% tuition reimbursement if withdrawal is in the third week of school. We think the living conditions of the bedbugs (oh and cockroaches too!) should warrant an exception to the standard policy. Believe it or not the dorms are so overcrowded with many students being tripled in double rooms, there was a replacement for my daughter's spot within days.
We have written emails and left numerous phone messages. We have been unable to get a response. Today we received a check in the mail amounting to a bit over $2,000. No note or explanation was included. This doesn't even come close to 40% so we are obviously very frustrated.
My question- would I have any legal recourse to recoup the full tuition. I have looked for similar situations online but haven't found one.
Any advice would be appreciated!
Our decision was a tough one since she enjoyed the school and it was too late to apply to other schools locally. However, we felt there was no choice. When we consulted a highly rated bedbug exterminator he confirmed that the school's response was inadequate and that the problem would likely continue.
In scouring the internet for info on bedbugs we became horrified by the incorrect protocol the school had used in treatment. Specifically,
__ no other rooms were inspected nor students asked.
__Removing contents was exactly the wrong thing to do since this would obviously spread the problem around.
__no other alternative room was available, my daughter would have been required to stay in the room which had been treated with chemicals.
__She would also surely have been bitten more since the exterminator told us that there would likely be increased bug activity following treatment. She is very allergic to bug bites so this was unacceptable.
__The treatment required 3 consecutive treatments performed every two weeks to even begin to see whether the problem had abated.
__Our exterminator confirmed that treating only one room in a dorm situation insured that the problem would NOT be eradicated.
The bedbug situation has become out of hand in NYC. We were petrified of bringing anything home! We threw out most of her contents. We bought a machine to heat up other contents in order to kill any bugs/eggs, and we hired the best exterminator we could find to examine my daughters room at home to make sure we brought nothing home. Obviously, this has been a great expense to our family.
The problem is that the school informed us that the policy is a 40% tuition reimbursement if withdrawal is in the third week of school. We think the living conditions of the bedbugs (oh and cockroaches too!) should warrant an exception to the standard policy. Believe it or not the dorms are so overcrowded with many students being tripled in double rooms, there was a replacement for my daughter's spot within days.
We have written emails and left numerous phone messages. We have been unable to get a response. Today we received a check in the mail amounting to a bit over $2,000. No note or explanation was included. This doesn't even come close to 40% so we are obviously very frustrated.
My question- would I have any legal recourse to recoup the full tuition. I have looked for similar situations online but haven't found one.
Any advice would be appreciated!