By Mahrukh Siddiqui
Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California (AJSOCAL) recently filed a discrimination lawsuit against the California Massage Therapy Council (CAMTC) in Sacramento County Superior Court.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of six Asian American students from the A2Z Health.Net (A2Z) school who said the school “CAMTC is unfairly holding their massage certifications” for a “perceived lack of language skills.”
AJSOCAL told AsAmNews that CAMTC ordered the plaintiffs and other A2Z students to “take additional English language interviews” and plaintiffs were not provided with information on the content of the interviews.
Paul Estuar, the litigation director at AJSOCAL said students from A2Z were required to pass an additional oral interview and that these additional interviews included questions that weren’t consistent, and students would be asked things that had nothing to do with massage therapy.
“We filed the lawsuit on June 26, 2024,” Estuar said. “And yesterday we filed a motion for preliminary injunction. We’re asking CAMTC to issue our clients massage certificates immediately.”
He said his clients complied with all the requirements under the law for obtaining certifications.
CAMTC is a private nonprofit created by the California Legislature and issues massage certifications that are required by the California Business and Professions code, according to its website.
Ahmos Netanel, the CEO of CAMTC said that they are not able to discuss the details of the lawsuit.
“However, any allegations that CAMTC has engaged in discrimination against Thai or Chinese students made in that lawsuit are false and completely without merit,” Netanel said. “CAMTC treats all applicants for certification equally, regardless of race, ethnicity or national origin and in fact does not collect data on this information.”
According to Netanel’s email, the lawsuit is related to an investigation for a specific school and the requirements “lawfully placed equally on all graduates of that school, regardless of race, ethnicity or national origin.”
Li Lin is a former A2Z student and is a plaintiff in the lawsuit. She said through her AJSOCAL translator, Heidi Shen, that she has been stressed out physically and mentally because of the massage certificate issue.
“Despite completing the program, the massage school and the California Massage Therapy Council have not provided any reasons for rejecting my certificate application,” Lin said in the email. “I was left in limbo, waiting for almost a year and a half without any explanation… a seemingly endless wait.”
Estuar said his clients are not able to go to work as massage therapists because the certification is required in most of the cities and counties where they live.
“Our clients are just six people, but there are dozens of students who are impacted by this, who are still waiting on their certificates, and they can’t go to work,” Estuar said.
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