Pierce County driving school shares update after abrupt closure amid lawsuit
A driving school in the Puget Sound that abruptly closed its doors in June will reopen, according to its website.
Freedom Driving School shut down its locations across the South Sound area including in Federal Way, South Hill, Lakewood and Spanaway. Pierce County court documents say that employees were laid off the same day the locations closed on June 19.
Owner Anthony Davenport is suing the school’s former general manager Bryon Cancil in Pierce County. Documents show that Davenport alleges Cancil breached his contract, failed to account for all the company’s assets, used assets for personal use and forged Davenport’s signature to open a new bank account for the business. Cancil denies these allegations, according to his own court filing. Their attorneys have not responded to The News Tribune’s request for comment.
Documents show Davenport requested a temporary restraining order to prevent Cancil from taking company property and assets. He also wanted Cancil to return property that Davenport alleges he took. A Pierce County Superior Court judge granted Davenport’s request for the temporary restraining order June 24.
The business posted on their website sometime after June 24 that they will be returning to full operations, but did not give a timeline. They said they will post a press release and public statement “in the coming days.” A press release has not yet been posted on their website as of Tuesday afternoon. The school’s Instagram account shows they posted a calendar June 25 that shows their Drivers Education Course schedule, including a class at 4 p.m on July 7.
The News Tribune has not been able to reach Freedom Driving School or Davenport’s attorneys to confirm when they will reopen.
Washington State Department of Licensing spokesperson Christine Anthony told The News Tribune via email that as of Tuesday they have not been notified of the school reopening.
“The owners of Freedom officially notified us they had closed the school. If new owners are planning to reopen the school, they would have to notify us and go through a process. We’ve received no official notification from anyone about reopening,” she wrote.
“We will be performing a standard closing audit with their operations manager and hope to get as many copies of student records as possible. Once we have that information we can work with students and parents to find new driver training resources so they can complete their training,” Anthony wrote via email.
Parents posted on Puyallup-area social media groups and told The News Tribune that the school’s closure left families in limbo. Kelly Anderson, a parent of a student at the South Hill-area school, told The News Tribune previously that her son was supposed to start lessons last week, and that she paid $843.31 in full to the school.
Anderson told The News Tribune through Facebook Messenger Tuesday that she has not gotten any updates from the school this week.
