The parents of 12 former CEDU high school students slated to graduate this June have hired four unemployed CEDU staff members to teach two emotional growth workshops so their children can obtain closure on their two-year CEDU experience.

"These families have privately funded these final workshops and a graduation ceremony for these kids who were literally weeks away from completing the program," stated Jamie Berg from San Diego, who is spearheading the effort by parents to stage the workshops starting April 8 and ending with a graduation ceremony April 16 at Pali Mountain.

Berg's daughter, Emma, 16, is among the 12 students who will attend the workshops at a private residence in Blue Jay.

"About half of the workshop participants are from out of state," Berg said, "including a young man from Taiwan.

"The workshops help the students and gets four people employed for a while that really need it," Berg added. "If you know anything about the CEDU program it was all about teaching these kids to take a responsible, honorable and ethical path in life. So to spend two years trying to get the children to live that life and then get them right up to graduation's door and have a multi-million dollar corporation slap them in the face and say they don't get it was not acceptable.

"We want them to be accountable," Berg stated. "We've been teaching them for two years to be accountable young people so to have a corporation act in such an unaccountable way is not a message we want to deliver to our children.

"My daughter looked at me with tears in her eyes and said she had done everything they told me to do for two years and now I'm not going to get to walk across the stage," Berg continued. "And I saidŠOh yes you will.

"Essentially, all the other families felt the same way," Berg explained. "You have to understand, some of these families are out thousands of dollars because CEDU Education debited their credit cards for April fees knowing they were filing for bankruptcy the same day."

Diane Kahn from Georgia, whose 16-year-old son will be among the students attending the workshops, indicated he would arrive back in California on Friday with the workshops slated to begin that afternoon.

"Eleven of the 12 students participating in the workshops are trying to complete the program," Kahn said. "We got the CEDU closure calls the evening of April 1 and by the next morning parents were spearheading efforts for the kids to complete the two workshops left. One is a 5-day workshop called 'The Summit' and the other the 'I and Me' workshop.

"We started communicating with the former staff and presented them with a proposal to put on the two workshops," Kahn noted. "The 'I and Me' workshop will be first with the June graduates helping with that one and then all 12 students will participate in 'The Summit'"

Kahn revealed each family had a one-hour telephone conference with staff members conducting the workshops prior to Friday afternoon's start date with a scheduled follow-up telephone conference at the conclusion of the two workshops.

The actual graduation ceremony is slated at the completion of the workshops at 10 a.m. April 16 at Pali Mountain.

"Parents are coming out from all over the country," Kahn said. Berg indicated over 100 confirmations have been received from parents and family planning to attend the matriculation ceremony.

"My daughter will complete her final two high school classes in San Diego," Berg added, "and is scheduled to graduate with a diploma in June."

CEDU High School and Middle School located in Running Springs abruptly closed last Friday after the parent company filed for bankruptcy. About 80 students were attending the two schools at the time of the closure. The two emotional growth-boarding facilities were among seven facilities closed by the CEDU Education Division of The Brown Schools based in Palm Beach, Florida.

CEDU High School in Running Springs was the nation's original emotional growth boarding school and was founded in 1967 by Mel Wasserman. The middle school was formed in 1991. Wasserman, who passed away in 2002, owned a Palm Springs furniture store when he founded CEDU in his home. The 75-acre site is located on what was once part of the estate of actor Walter Huston (1884-1950).

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