Parents, Professionals, Magic Mazik, and the Long Road to a Conditional License

By Elizabeth Scheinberg

10/18/1979 NJ - The State's decision to deny Au Clair a license for the second time did nothing to end the controversy or close the school. Several parents began exploring legal action against the state for "unnecessary interference in their children's welfare." While sifting through future articles never produced any evidence that such a suit was filed, it did reveal Au Clair had a long, quiet road yet to travel with several states deeply vested in the outcome.

While Rammano insisted that Ken Mazik would come out fighting, Mazik never made a spoke publicly. He existed quietly in the shadows and let his attorney, his Au Clair parents, his sending states be the official voice of the battle for Au Clair.

On October 30, 1979, Rammuno filed the first step to an administrative appeal: The Arbitrary and Capricious Clause, defined by Wikipedia as "doing something according to one’s will or caprice and therefore conveying a notion of a tendency to abuse the possession of power." This clause is a legal lynchpin. I knew that before I devolved to Wikipedia as a legitimate source. In most legal administrative procedures appeals can only be filed under these three little words and the filing party is tasked with proving that an action by a public body was "arbitrary and capricious" in order for their appeal to move forward. "Arbitrary and Capricious" is so important to our legal system that it made its way into Title 14, Chapter 1 of the education code that governs our state.

Rammuno also demanded that the state turn over all files so that Au Clair could determine the exact allegations against the school. Finally, in March of 1980, after several negotiations, the state announced that it would reconsider Au Clair's licensing application. Despite losing its license nine months prior, Au Clair had been permitted to continue to operate. Finally, the school had reached an agreement with the state - it would drop its appeal if the state agreed to re-evaluate the school and the changes that had occurred in the five months previous:

The hiring of an independent program director
Increased staffing
Organized two outside review committees
Collaborated with experts on how to improve its program
Raised tuition from $18,000 to $26,000 to financially support the new changes to the school's programming.

In return, the state speculated that Au Clair would likely earn a conditional license. The state continued to have concerns and while staffing and training was strongly stressed, there were concerns regarding the independent program director, Dean Alexander, whom Mazik picked to oversee the school. At the time of the new review Alexander had only been in the position for a short period of time and while he was highly regarded, the impact of his efforts could not be measured so soon after his hiring.

That should have been the end of the story.

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