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Tragedy at Montana school
by Ken Kay -
President WWASP
435-656-2313
October 8, 2004
Spring Creek Lodge (SCL), the school for troubled teens
close to Thompson Falls, MT, announced last night that
a student had committed suicide at the school.
The identity of the girl and the exact manner of death are not being
released at the request of the family.
“We are all in a state of complete shock,” said Chaffin Pullen, chief
of operations at the school. “Clearly we are deeply saddened by this
event and are most of all devastated for the family.”
Pullen added that the girl, from Denver, CO, was under the supervision
of a professional counselor and had also seen a psychiatrist
since arriving at the school.
SCL was acutely aware of the girl’s fragility and had placed her on
“high risk” observation. She had recently been removed from “high risk”
after showing definite signs of improvement, a move that required the
signatures of four SCL staff members who had direct contact with the
girl, including the head of the school’s clinical mental health services.
Pullen said that he will be launching a detailed and immediate investigation
into the events leading to the girl’s death. “We will be making sure
that this kind of tragedy cannot happen again,” he said.
SCL was arranging for grief counselors to attend to students at the
school in the coming days.
The suicide was the first at SCL, which opened in 1996. Since the opening,
more than 3,500 teens have attended SCL.
Ken Kay
President, WWASPS
321 No. Mall Dr. Bldg. T-101
St. George, Utah 84790
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