Spa Tech Institute - Ipswich location Sexual Assault Ipswich Massachusetts

I wanted to update my previous review of Spa Tech Institute in Ipswich to reflect that I no longer have any complaints against this institution.  I wanted to remove my complaint all together but that goes against this sites policies and am unable to do so.  Spa Tech and I are on good terms and I have no complaints against this school or it's massage program.

I too am a recent graduate of Spa Tech Institue in Ipswich and am appalled by your responses.  I started my school year out so excited to return and so excited to start a new career doing something I loved but with every month that past my excitement turned to shame.  Shame for chosing this school and shame for how you handled this situation.  I was there the day in clinic that this occured and sat afterwards with the victim and to spare her from having to relive this day I will only say that those few hours after this occured were awful.  I dont have your rebuttle up so I will go from memory on a few key points that I certainly do not agree with.  First, you claim that he did not massage in clinic until the allegations were deamed incorrect; FALSE, he massaged a 16 year old girl immediately after, his very next client!  The teacher in charge of clinic had already been notified of what happened and chose to give him a 16 year old girl for his next client! That alone is disgusting!  This brings me to my second argument, the teacher who was in charge of watching the student clinic was not a licensed massage therapist, she has never done massage but was instead a polarity therapist which is completely different.  Third, if you and the school felt that this allegation was incorrect why did the clinic policy change only a few weeks later that clients no longer could be massaged under 18 as long as they were accompanied by an adult but now no child under 18 was permitted at all? If nothing happened then what? This was just a weird coincidence that the rule changed only a few weeks later?  Also your accomodations so that the victim never had to see the accused during school hours didnt go into effect until weeks later as well.  The student had to leave early and miss out on school hours that she then had to make up at the end of the year because he was coming to school hours before his night classes ended.  Multiple times during the remainder of the year the victim had panic attacks and random outbursts in tears just at the mear mention of something that reminded her, and when this happened do you think the staff helped her? Or tried to make her feel safe? No, they got aggravated and ignored her, or even repromanded her for leaving.  There is many things that happened at this school while I attended that I did not think were handled correctly but the biggest is you trying to make her feel like she is at fault and only doing this for money.  HOW DARE YOU try to make someone feel like being touched innapropriately was her fault, that is like telling someone they were asking for it for the way they were dressed. Even your wife said to her on your interview "You have wonderful energy I can see why he would be drawn to you."    I am ending this with the last conversation I had with the victim on our very last day of school, "I see everyone here so happy to be here and so excited to be at school and I wish that I felt that way, that is all that I wanted and I am graduating not feeling like 'Yay I did it' but instead feelings like 'I survived this' "

The claims by this graduate are misleading and the assertion that the school did not take steps to ensure her safety or the safety of others is false. The school took the situation very seriously, conducted a full and thorough investigation and found that the accusations were not sufficiently supported to warrant termination of the accused student. The accused student wasn't allowed to practice in the student clinic until the investigation was completed and the school was confident that it was okay for the accused student to work in the student clinic and go on to graduate from the program.

The alleged act that she references happened in an open clinic room where there was a teacher, other students and clinic clients all within the same classroom. There were other students and clients within 6 feet of her at any given time. The students are taught from the beginning that these are student sessions and that they need to speak up and give feedback at any time during a session if something doesn't feel right. Clinic clients are also advised of this in writing when they attend the clinic.

At no time during the session did the accuser ever give feedback or ask the accused student to stop the technique he was practicing. The accuser was free to speak at any time and to stop the session at a moment's notice but never said a thing until the session was over. Therefore the student doing the work had no indication that there was anything wrong with the technique he was practicing at the time.

The school has a very complete process to avoid a rush to judgement and as a result it took time to interview everyone and do additional follow up and evaluation of the accused student. The school is very dedicated to the profession and has in the past terminated enrollment in cases of inappropriate language or actions by students. In all cases, this is only done after a careful procdess has been followed. 

The school did a thorrough investigation of the accusation including interviewing all the students and teachers in the clinic as well as the accused student's classmates and teachers and took measures to ensure that the accuser and the accused would not be on campus at the same time in the future as well as other accomodations. Based on the feedback given in the interviews and additional interviews and evaluations of the accused student, it was found that there was insufficient cause to terminate the enrollment of the accused student. 

Unfortunately, the accuser was unable to accept the outcome of the investigation and has chosen to attempt to undermine the good reputation of the school because the school would not terminate the accused student based solely on her accusation. 

At this point the accuser has posted the same or similar complaints on other review sites (although Yelp! pulled down her complaint because other graduates from her class flagged it as misleading and inaccurate and she put up a revised complaint.) In her complaint to the BBB she has also asked to have a full tuition refund which brings up the question of the real motives behind writing the negative reviews. 

For more information and to see reviews by other students from the same class I recommend you visit http://www.yelp.com/filtered_reviews/FfYAKrrH4ySPzApJzvwl_w?fsid=a3BOgThAasj2Dbw05fqmXA as well as coming to an open house at the school and talking to the students to find out more about the actaul quality of the school and their education. You can find the open house dates at http://www.spatech.edu/spa-tech-school-blog/view/26-open-houses-and-events.html# and you can visit the school at any time.