Lawsuits filed over company's private-school admission claim

A B.C. woman who allegedly bragged that she had the connections to get any child accepted at any Vancouver private school is now facing a pair of lawsuits from disgruntled parents.

Monica Li was the director of the company Pebble Kids, based in Vancouver's Kerrisdale neighbourhood. It has since been dissolved and there is no active website for the business, but on its Alignable profile, Pebble Kids says it offers individualized education enrichment programs for children between three and five years old designed to "prepare each child for future admission to top-tier schools."

In two separate lawsuits, the claimants say they paid tens of thousands of dollars to Pebble Kids believing that Li would get their children accepted to a local private school.

However, they allege that Li never fulfilled her end of the bargain.

None of the allegations have been proven in court.

Private school connections

In a notice of claim filed last week, Weina Yundong says she paid more than $35,000 in 2022 to Pebble Kids for private school consultation services, private and group sessions, interview training and preschool tuition at the unlicensed preschool that was run by Pebble Kids.

In the lengthy claim, Yundong says she and her husband met Li through friends. She claims Li introduced herself as a teacher at Mulgrave School, a private school in West Vancouver.

Mulgrave School wouldn't confirm if Li was ever employed at the institution due to privacy concerns.

Yundong alleges Li said her company, Pebble Kids, helped families apply to private schools and was operating with a 100 per cent acceptance rate. The suit claims Li promised she could help the Yundong family with their Mulgrave application because "she has plenty of connections with the school board."

Her services allegedly also included application training support, opportunities to meet and connect with Mulgrave school parents, school board member referrals and a preschool group class for the 2022-2023 school year.

In her claim, Yundong alleges that "almost none" of the services she was promised were provided.

Guaranteed admission

In the second lawsuit, Ka Tsang, through her company, claimed damages for "fraudulent misrepresentations" by Li.

Tsang alleges Li guaranteed that she could get any student, including Tsang's children, accepted into any private school in Vancouver through her relationships with admission officers.

According to the suit, which was filed in January, Li also allegedly convinced Tsang to take over the lease of the unit where Pebble Kids operated, claiming it would "generate substantial revenue."

In all, Tsang paid more than $22,000 for the assignment of the lease and more than $24,000 for Pebble Kids' private school consulting services.

Within a month, Tsang wrote that she "discovered the true nature of the Li misrepresentations," adding that Li knew or should've known that she could not guarantee admission at a private school.

Tsang says she demanded the return of all the funds. And while she says was refunded for the lease agreement, Li has refused to refund the consulting fees.

CBC News has reached out to Li for comment.

A tutoring school, LWL Education, now operates out of the same commercial unit formerly used by Li, however, the business says it is not connected to Pebble Kids.