Svetlana Hope Cyphert - 2021

June 25, 2021 a tragedy occured at Reflections Academy in Montana when a 17-year-old girl died as what is investigated as a suicide.

We cannot know what line of events that led her to be placed at the facility. But we can assume that her family believed that she was placed in a safe environment. She was failed. Her family was failed. The facility was not able to deal with severe mental conditions and run on such professional level as the girls illness required.

It is such a waste of life. The authorities intervened and the facility had to close down. Unfortunately too late to save the poor girl.

May she find peace where she is now

Sources

• After mishandling suicide, Reflections Academy to close Saturday (Independent Record)
• Reflections Academy (Project Unsilenced)
• Girl’s Death at Boarding School Under Investigation(HI-line Today)
• Troubled Teen Industry Loopholes (Clinical Reads)

Angel Lynn Rolph-Jackson - 2021

2020 was hardly started before the first death of the year of a teenager detained in a residential setting happened.

At Shodair Children’s Hospital a tragedy occured when 15-year-old girl which name has not been released to the public died and the authorities suspected suicide. She has since been identified asAngel Lynn Rolph-Jackson.

It was the second known death at the facility as a girl died in traffic after an escape attempt in June 2019.

Some hospitals prioritize profit over the welfare of patients. Investigation conducted by the authorities blame understaffing and lack of monitoring instructions as the cause of the tragedy.

It is impossible to imagine how the relatives and friends who believed that she was safe in a hospital setting must feel.

It was an unnecessary tragedy. May she find peace where she is now.

Sources

• Report: Insufficient staffing and training contributed to death at Shodair (Montana Free Press)
• Report: Shodair Hospital had multiple patient escapes before July 15 death (8 KPAX - Missoula & Western Montana)
• State's report says staffing shortage, burnout and training issues played role in Shodair patient death (KTVH)
• In Memory Of Angel Lynn Rolph-Jackson, age 15, of Helena (Anderson Stevenson Wilke Funeral Home)

Kayla Neal - 2019

15 year old Kayla Neal was tragicly killed in a traffic accident when she ran from Shodair Children’s Hospital.

Former employees question the staffing and the safety for children placed at the facility. All it took was starting the fire alarm and then the children could run freely in the community which proved not safe for the poor girl. What about neighbors if other patients not so friendly and harmless as the girl escape?

Nevertheless there now is a family out there who lost a family member.

It was tragic and we can only send our prayers to the family left behind.


Sources:

• Montana teen who ran away from mental hospital dies after being hit by pickup truck, police say (Fox news)
• "not safe for kids or employees." (Glassdoor)

Karlye Anne Newman - 2004

On October 7, 2004 Karlye Anne Newman slipped into a bathroom at Spring Creek Lodge Academy, which was a behavior modification boarding school outside Thompson Falls in Montana and hanged herself in a stall with her sweatshirt.

When she passed she was 16 years of age. Some weeks later she would have turned 17.

How could it go so far? It seems that she saw no other solution she was forced into. Faced with isolation from family and friends, without possibility to complain about possible abuse and under threat to be placed in a tiny isolation chamber called "the hobbit" due its size, she did choose what she saw as the only possible way out.

Could she have run away?

Maybe, but as a TV-station was able to show in a documentary even the local police seemed to be more worried about jobs in the remote community than the well-being of the teenagers in this special boarding school.

The campus was shut down in 2009, but it could very well open under a new name with the same management as it has been seen in other case. The very same setup for tragedy could be re-created.

Montana has no valid regulation of the standards in their boarding schools. The very consultants the politicians have hired are represents for the boarding school industry. Of course it would be odd if they regulated themselves out of the business due to concern of the safety of their students. It will never happen.

It seems that federal regulation is the only answer and it is about to happen if the politicians in Washington can be pushed to pass HR 911.

The world does not need yet another family who is robbed of their daughter like the parents of Newman was.

RIP

References:
Spring Creek's short leash, by John S. Adams, Missoula Independent, June 16, 2005
Spring Creek Lodge Academy, WWASPinfo
MT: Lawuits Mount Against Spring Creek Lodge (2006 Article) (The Coalition for Positive Behavioral Interventions & Supports) - blog
Victims_2000 - 4 (Fornits Home for Wayward Web Fora Wiki)