Dallas barber school shuts down abruptly

Okay since y’all asked, here is my experience in a complete nut shell: 1. Veterans had the worst treatment (I am not one, but many students are) They were owed a $2,500 reimbursement from the government but according to MANY fellow students, the school would hold their money hostage and they would basically have to go to e-mail war. 2. Turn over was immensely concerning. Instructors and staff were getting fired left and right, or forced to quit. This is when the students started to understand that something was off. The director, Lilly, even turned and fucked over one of her own family members that she hired. I saw the e-mail war. 3. Simply the vibe and energy in the room, and the way the whole program was navigated. Idk man, you had to be there. - They forced us to post on social media (super weird- they made us show them our social media posts to get a grade or to even clock out. Some of these students have a huge social media following… they don’t want to give the school free marketing, they already paid 15k. The posts were always cringey and nothing anyone wants to see, people literally don’t care what brand of shampoo we use in the school for crying out loud, they come for the cheap haircuts and to help students out. I always just screenshotted my “post” and just showed them my phone without actually posting. Idiots. - Floor time was always inconsistent (huge protocol discrepancies daily I.e. cleanliness, client service customaries, routines, etc) - They nudged us to push forward a false image. For example, it was clear as day to all the students that were already in the program that everyone was miserable, the program sucked, and the director was just straight up weird. Literally everyone hated it there, I’m not even exaggerating. So, every time a new class would start, they would make us go around the room and say why we chose Bladecraft Barber Academy. The answers were always dry. And the conclusion was always awkward. No one was genuinely excited to be there. One time, a new student that was 2 weeks into their program came up to me first thing in the morning and said “dude I want out” verbatim. 2 WEEKS! Young, ambitious, intelligent, innovative, incredible, handsome man- completely heart-shattered that the program isn’t anywhere near what he was expecting. - Every time someone goes against the grain in any capacity, Lilly bans them from the school. Most of her former employees are banned from the school. You almost couldn’t show any rebelliousness, even if you were being treated like complete shit. 4. When they opened a coffee shop in the academy, they pulled the rug from under the lovely coffee company. The owner of the coffee company was an absolute delight, I felt terrible when it happened. It was so sudden with very few answers, just like the academy closure- super sketchy. I’ll post a screenshot. 5. One of Lilly’s employees told me directly that Lilly talks mad shit about her students, and has favorites. The employee went on to tell me that that is why certain students get a good amount of clients, and others don’t. My class was complaining about that: select students that ALWAYS get the walk in clients. Students brought this up multiple times. Breaks my heart tbh, these people are just trying to build a basic foundation for their career. They were just curious to why they were being neglected. 6. I personally had a catastrophic season in my personal life so I couldn’t complete my program on time. So I had to stay past my contract and pay an additional $250 per week. Okay cool, no problem, I understand that- I missed school due to personal matters and now I have to pay for it, UNDERSTOOD THAT IS THE REAL WORLD. I approached Lilly and she promised me that I could clock in 45 hours/week instead of the normal 25 so that I could speed up the process and graduate. I was thankful of course. The MOMENT my contract was up, I received an email saying that if I want more than 25 hours/week, I would have to pay an ADDITIONAL $15/hour- I couldn’t clock in 45 hours without penalty as promised that’s a new total of $550 per week. The $15/hour is no where in my contract, they were just trying to get more money out of me. I even took off WEEKS off of work so that I could be at school for 45 hours/week instead of 25. I live by myself in Dallas, pay all my own bills, and was paying my tuition out-of-pocket. I was heart-broken to say the least. Mind you, a part of my catastrophe was losing multiple family members in less than 10 months. I was talking to one of my classmates about why I missed some school, Lilly happened to walk up, then nudged into the conversation for 4 seconds (as she does). I told her exactly what happened, horrible details and everything. Looked at me stone-cold in the eyes, said nothing at all and walked away. She can’t handle authentic connections/conversations with her students. She does this often, she has walked away while I was mid-sentence multiple times. At first it hurt my feelings but then I got used to it, especially after telling her about my dead family members. 7. BCBA/Lilly social media always settled weirdly with me. It’s now deleted. But it had thousands of followers and each post would get 8 likes with bot comments. Yet students would relocated across the nation to come to this school because of the reputation??? I feel so bad for them. Lilly published a book with several typos and run-on sentences. She had this interesting way of having a “good” reputation in Dallas, several people in her corner, etc. However there was something slightly off in her demeanor, personality, the way she treated people, simultaneously having this forced warm and fuzziness to her social navigation, power trippy sometimes. It’s almost like you had to be there. I call her the Dallas version of Jennifer Lopez, that’s the absolute best way I can describe it- if you know, you know. I could honestly go on, and like I said- it’s almost like you had to be there. Yet, everything that is coming out now 100% affirms the way I and other students felt about BCBA and Lilly personally. It’s a wildfire right now- I will also post some screen shots of what people are saying. Some screen shots are in relation to this YouTube video: https://youtu.be/KzuG-8XsMlg?si=UJwp5M3eq5wQkXM6 I even made a simple, honest comment and it got taken down immediately. I definitely hit a nerve lmao cause a lot of the comments are still up. In conclusion, I am so desensitized frankly by my personal chaos and the chaos the school put me through. So I don’t really feel any type of way about it, just watching the flames get higher while sippin’ on whiskey. I’m indifferent. I don’t care if she gets punished like she deserves, the worst punishment for her is having to be the person that she is. I’m going to move forward. I’m going to save my money, and go to a different school. Thankfully I LOVE barbering. It brings me so much joy. I’m thankful that this experience didn’t change the way I feel about the art of barbering. P.s. that was a big ass nutshell. P.s.s. Just realized I can’t post screenshots, y’all lmk if you wanna see everything that people are saying rn.