Ethan Haines Reveals HER Identity!

USA Today just came out with a story on scamblogs and Zenovia Evans (a/k/a Ethan Haines) of Denver.  Zenovia, welcome!  I'm kinda tickled pink that she's a chick and I understand her reluctance to post pics initially.  Well, the cat's out of the bag and the national media is on it!

One recent grad even went on a hunger strike on Aug. 5. "We have a new crop starting and no one's telling them anything about this," says Zenovia Evans, 28, of Denver, who uses the name "Ethan Haines" on her blog, UnemployedJD.com.

The first in her family to finish college, she says that "no one wants to say, 'Hey, career office, you failed me,' " but "I couldn't take this lying down." She says she owes more than $150,000 in loans.

Zenovia, you are not alone!  Many BIDER readers owe $150K+.  I admire your zeal and I hope that it's recognized.

Of course, because USA Today (bloody rag that it is) isn't interested in the real story, they use the statistics provided by the ABA and the NALP to write this story:

The American Bar  Association, which accredits law schools, acknowledges such concerns. A report in November, noting the average student borrowed $59,324 for a public law school and $91,506 for a private one in 2007-08, cautioned prospective students to "have a clear picture of the debt they will incur and the expected earning power."

Among 2009 graduates, 88% are employed, down from 92% in 2007; they were more likely than in previous years to hold part-time or temp jobs or those not requiring a law degree, says the non-profit National Association for Law Placement. Summer job openings for second-year students, often the first step to getting hired full time, "shrank dramatically" this year, it says.

I can't wait until these organizations are forced to lay out the statistics accurately.  Instead of saying that students owe $91K for private law schools, they should say:  10% owe $20K or less (because they attended law school on scholarship) and 90% owe $125K+.  Oh yah, and 25% of those who reported being employed are part-time or temporary workers.  I have no basis for coming up with these figures except my conversations with young graduates today.  However, I would venture to guess that the figures I came up with off the top of my head are more accurate than those that the NALP pulls out of its ass.

Of course, USA today has to mention "personal" responsibility:

Kelsey May, a 2010 University of Tulsa law school grad and co-author of What the L? 25 Things We Wish We'd Known Before Going to Law School, agrees law school can be tricky to navigate but says the anger is "misplaced. ... There should be some level of (personal) responsibility."

It makes me think of the rape shield laws.  When I was 11, I went to court with my mother on a traffic ticket.  After she was found guilty, we went to the juicy court rooms and watched a few major criminal trials for the rest of the day.  This is how my interest in the law began. I remember sitting in on a rape trial and the questions were as follows:

1.  What were you wearing to the party?
2.  Were you wearing panties?  What kind?
3.  Have you flirted with the defendant before?
That was before the legal system acknowledged the error in trying the victim.
Today, we put young people on trial for buying into the fraud perpetrated by law schools in their glossy brochures.  Somehow, law students are responsible for buying the employment statistics at face value.  Law students are victims as well.  When will the Legal Industrial Complex be found liable for misleading lemmings to slaughter?  It's robbery.

On a side note, my mom is a little nutty for taking me--I realize.

In short, thanks for coming out Ethan Haines a/k/a Zenovia Evans. I hope that a real reporter digs a bit deeper into your, and our, story.  I also hope that your health is not compromised as a result of taking a stand against the for-profit industry--which profits off the backs of our helpless and misinformed youth!

UPDATE

Zenovia Evans has totally duped me and all the other scam bloggers. This is the real story: she is a pro-industry shill, who probably orchestrated this whole stunt to push her book.  I'm not even going to post a link to her book, nor the name, because I don't want to contribute to any of her book sales.    Let me just post this bit about her book and services so that you understand why I'm so ticked right now:

Evans desire is to “guide students through common law school scenarios and pitfalls while providing strategies for successfully exploiting the experience.” She is committed to her mission of “modernizing and diversifying the legal industry through the dissemination of information.” To further this mission, she offers custom ... packages to schools and professional entities via a sponsorship program that includes author appearances, webinars, and the creation of a custom companion guide.

I feel like such a fool.  She used BIDER and the other scam blogs to sell her books.  I'm taking her off my blog roll, unless and until she sends me an explanation.  I suspect she hasn't lost one pound in protest against the law school scam.  Please, Zenovia, tell me it ain't so: angelthelawyer@gmail.com

Ode to Sally May! A Story of Hope and Loss.

I enjoy reading the comments, more than you enjoy reading BIDER.  Especially when I find poetry from those that have been inspired by life circumstances.  An Anonymous comment blew me away this morning and I thought I should post it.  Thank you, Anonymous Commenter, for making me smile and reading our blog.  Enjoy:

Anonymous said...

Well, I'll just say this because it's a better day than most. Not because the sun is shining or because there is any hope that my law degree will get me a job, but, look, at this point, I'm sitting at the table, I'm on a losing streak, I'm down more money than I've ever had in my life, my wife/girlfriend has got pissed off and left the casino, I would be sleeping on the couch (if I had not lost it in the previous hand), and I've only got my car key to go all in, so, I'm throwing it on the pile. I'm all in, and I will be all in every hand after this because I'm a man with nothing to lose. It's the first bit of enthusiasm I've had for a couple of years now. You're going to have to forgive me.

I'll play fair. I'll be up-front. I'll be honest. I'll play by the rules. But, one rule no one can change is that when you've got nothing to lose, losing the next hand doesn't move you. You find yourself right back in the same place. it's funny, that. So, my law degree is staying on the wall. It's worthless. I know. But fuck me if it didn't suck trying to get it. It's staying to remind me that I work for myself. That was what it was supposed to represent at some point. Misled I was, but the fact is that the reason I thought I was going to law school was to chart my own course.

Forgive me if I haven't changed my mind about doing that. There are no debtors' prisons. What has been taken away from me, and I suppose from all of us, is nothing more than the incentive to live a lower middle-class life. The Sallie Mae death-zone makes me a slave, and quite frankly, she can go fuck herself. I'm not going to work for her, the harlot. I'll work to take care of what I need, but I'm not going to do 80-hour weeks at $15/hour so Ms Mae, the tart, can garnish 55 of them until I'm dead and gone.

So, get this: I'm gone. I'll tell you where when I get there, wherever it will be. I'm going to keep in touch. Don't you worry your pretty little head about that. But, I'm also going to take obscene career risk after obscene career risk until one of them banks. And, if it never happens for me, well, then, I guess, Sallie, you're just going to have to live on less, now aren't you.

Economically, is that not the rational, cold-blooded business decision? Tell me it's not. Tell me there is a reason I should live my life in your death-zone. Tell me this is not what some of the major banks just did when they walked away from mortgages and leases and then refused to let under-water homeowners do the same thing. Know what? I'm too big to fail. So go fuck [sic.] yourself. No, my debts won't be discharged in bankruptcy. No, I'm not going to disappear on you and the kids. And, yes, I'm going to try my best. But, look, one thing I learned in law school is that the interests and debtors and creditors are not always aligned, however much you say you really want to work "with" me. That tends to happen when you over-reach and when you create necessitous men. Maybe you should have thought of that before now, because I've only got so much money, and you can't starve me into a better job (though, no doubt, you'd try).