Four parents have filed a class action lawsuit against the Wilderness Treatment Center, an addiction recovery program in Montana, claiming that the school did not do enough to prevent their sons from running away while in the school’s care.
John and Lisa Walker, along with Roy and Amy Provost, have filed a class action lawsuit claiming that the Wilderness Alternative School d/b/a Wilderness Treatment Center did not provide sufficient security and monitoring to prevent their two sons from running away from the program, despite warnings by the parents that the sons were likely to run away.
Allegedly, the school falsely assured the parents of the two boys that their sons would not run away, and that the school was well-equipped to handle cases like theirs.
The four parents seek to hold the treatment center accountable for alleged negligence, and aim to represent a Class of people who purchased services and care through the Wilderness Treatment Center and were therefore injured by the company’s misrepresentations about the program.
North Carolina residents John and Lisa Walker say that they sent their son C.G. to the Wilderness Alternative School’s treatment program when he was under 18.
John Walker says he contacted the school to inquire about enrolling his son on April 10, 2018 and spoke to employee Chase Sewell. Walker says that he told Sewell that his son expressed intent to run away, and expressed concern about the program’s ability to monitor at-risk children and to prevent them from running away.
The plaintiff claims that during this conversation Sewell said that the program was a “good match” for C.G., who was “very typical” of the boys in the program. Sewell allegedly said that at the program, there was “nowhere to run,” and assured Walker that the facility had intense supervision to prevent runaways.
During C.G.’s time at the Wilderness Treatment Center, he was reportedly assigned to treatment center employee Nora Rye, who reassured the Walkers on multiple occasions that C.G. would not succeed at running away, despite the fact that John Walker notified her that C.G. had stated his plan to run away with other children at the facility.
Roy and Amy Provost say that they had a similar experience to the Walkers. They claim that they called the Wilderness Treatment Center on April 15, 2018, saying that their son J.P. was at a high risk of attempting to escape from a treatment center, and inquired if the Wilderness Alternative School would be a good fit for him.
The Provosts allegedly spoke with treatment center employee Ben Dorrington, who, like Sewell, who spoke with the Walkers, said that there was nowhere for J.P. to go, and claimed that the organization had never had an escape during Dorrington’s time at the organization.
The Wilderness Treatment Center class action lawsuit says that despite adamant claims by the staff that the center was equipped to handle flight risks, J.P. successfully broke into a room to search for cigarettes, and at a later evening, successfully ran away from the facility and was returned to the center by police.
The Wilderness Treatment Center insufficient security class action lawsuit says that on another occasion, C.G. and J.P. successfully escaped the facility together, using a treatment center vehicle.
The parents claim that their sons were able to obtain the vehicle keys because they were left unsecured and available. Additionally, they say that at the time of the escape, there were not enough staff members monitoring the facility to prevent the boys from escaping.
According to the Walkers, the boys were insufficiently monitored despite the fact that the center had allegedly put C.G. on 24-hour a day adult supervision because he was on a “suicide watch” after having previously made suicide threats.
Additionally, the four parents argue in their treatment center security class action lawsuit that the Wilderness Treatment Center had discontinued both boys’ medication, and that the discontinuation may have contributed to their unpredictable and dangerous behavior.
The Walkers and the Provosts are represented by Keith L. Gross of Gross Law Group PA.
The Wilderness Treatment Center Security Problems Class Action Lawsuit is John Walker, et al. v. Wilderness Alternative School Inc., Case No. 9:18-cv-00156, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana, Missoula Division.
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11 thoughts onWilderness Treatment Center Provides Insufficient Security, Class Action Says
Maybe some of these individuals needed a shock boot camp, in comparison to jail. These people whom you look to for help, only have the capability of doing so much, I guess I would look further into the why our future children act as if the way they do, start with the parenting, then whom they desire to keep in there ring of friends. There is no more discipline or accountability for kids or for that matter parenting.
The individual has to want to make a difference in their lives, you may try to guide them, but that’s it. They’re going to set sail however they want to. Coming from a parent whom has an adult child that is an addict.
I was sent to the WTC after only smoking weed in college and maybe getting off track. The wilderness treatment center employees were some of the dumbest folks I’d ever met. I wasn’t about to be schooled by some uneducated counselor outdoorsy type freaks. I was surrounded by heroin/meth addicts and alcoholics. After going to one meeting, I was immediately fed up and walked off after being there for only about 12 hours. It was a total shit show. The leaders were trying play with the emotions of the other kids, guilt trip them bg using all this emotionally driven nonsense to drive them to make changes. The employees couldn’t figure out what to do when I left except shout at me, “you’re an addict! You’re leaving to go do drugs!” No, I was going back to my normal life away from this pointless (4 weeks or more) excursion in Montana. Yeah I smoked weed again, but eventually phased it out on my own when I decided it was for fools. I actually think its a good thing to do when you’re a young person, but you should just outright quit after 10 times, because there isn’t anything more you can experience after doing it a few times. It becomes repetitive and dulling. The counselors at this place were trying to scare me into not leaving by telling me I’d be killed by a wild animal or captured by a serial killer and held captive. Then they said they were gonna call my parentz and tell them that I had to leave and was going to go do drugs and probably die and the he was using thise same tactics, telling me “how do you think your mom will feel after she’s crying on the phone because I tell her you had to leave to go do drugs?!” I was like F this place. Those people were NUTS. This place definitely had a security problem. I walked in with a prescription bottle full of painkillers, which I had zero interest in taking. I wasn’t even into that. I just happened to have them. I just didn’t even think about it as being a controlled substance. Thats how uninterested I was in doing drugs. The initial search found nothing in my bag, because they didn’t check all the pockets of the bag. The counselor came down on me so hard and couldn’t stop yelling at me. Again, the reason they couldn’t do anything is because I had just turned 18. I had little to no understanding of what the legal implications were to be 18 and I was sort of young in my mind, sheltered and had only prepared myself in life to be at college with my parents supporting me with little to no other concept of living. So at the time, I was pretty ignorant of what I could do as a legal adult, because I was used to a fairly sheltered and relatively priveleged life. One of the fellow “inmates” told me I could leave since I was 18, so I was like “oh”. So I got my stuff and got ready to leave. The place stole all my cash, bank cards, my prescriptions and my wallet. I had to demand my ID from them and I walked off towards the sort of main road and planned to hitch-hike. Someone picked me up within about an hour and took me to Idaho, which is a beautiful state. Then I got a bus ticket and backtracked to Colorado. Now I’m living large and can look back and say “Well I’m glad that place closed” thanks to the Provosts and the Walkers. I just wasn’t happy with how these people talked to me. The only way to success for me was stimulation of the brain (I got 2 master’s degrees), economic progress (i make money), relationships (i have friends and family) and spiritual life (i stuck with the religion I grew up with). I don’t believe someone who has a problem should be pigeonholed in a place like this. Just show them the perks of living a good life. I’ve seen other people go through programs and all they aim for is sobriety (#1) and everything else seems so secondary, like their success and family is just an afterthought. Or at best, they aim for mediocre goals. I guess the my pillow guy achieved a lot for sure. But more often than not, effort is put into what they’ll do in life. I see a lot of them seek careers in drug counseling, so their livelihood depends upon the creation of new addicts who need help. Its just random. So their likelihood of being tempted to go back to doing whatever they were doing is pretty high because so much emphasis is put on sobriety, not enough is put on THE MEANING OF LIFE. That is definitely partially due to centers like the WTC being run by complete morons. Anyways best of luck to anyone who had troubles with this strange treatment center, problems with addiction or a lack of direction or purpose in life. You can do anything you want to in life.
I went to wilderness treatment center idk must have been about 2007 or 2008. I ran away too! Made it all the way to Kalispell airport where they arrested me. They brought me back and I had the best time of my life. I often wonder what happened to all those people. Thanks for those memories they will never leave me.
Who was the councilor with the pirate tattoo on his arm?? And he used to say pirates and addicts share the same blood. He was great.
Anyway I made it I’m 31 and own a house!! So sorry to hear this
So 2 kids stole a vehicle, and were returned by the police. It sounds like they could have faced felony charges. When I was there, 2 kids rn away but they came back because there was nowhere to go. It’s a shame that all it takes is a couple of spiteful parents to shut down a treatment center that’s been in operation for over 35 years. It sounds like they’re just shitty parents. Wilderness treatment center has touched the lives of thousands of people. I’m deeply saddened by this news.
Unfortunately they were able to shut us down with this lawsuit. It’s unfortunate that these people are vengeful enough to break up a family and a program desperately needed
Rob, My name is Benjamin G. I am an alumni of the “dub” and I wanted to take the time to thank you. My heart was broken when I heard Y’all had to shut down. Without the time I spent there I would not be the man I am today. I wish I had 3.9m and I would open it back up myself. I had a tough time in the beginning there and tried to run away myself. If it wasn’t for the support of the staff at the time I never would have made it back. I now have a beautiful family, a house of my own, and my own car business. Thank you again for creating the “dub” I know I speak for thousands when I say we wouldn’t be the same without our time there.
Our son went there and ran away and came back 15 minutes later because it was bitterly cold out. This is a wonderful program and this is truly sad these parents feel the need to blame others for their children’s irresponsible actions. It’s a shame that they’re putting this program through this litigation. There will be an army of families that lineup to testify that this is a great program and I hope that these parents have to pay the legal fees of WTC. Take responsibility for your children’s actions and stop blaming others
Unfortunately they were able to shut us down with this lawsuit. It’s unfortunate that these people are vengeful enough to break up a family and a program desperately needed.
Where is the harm? My son was there in 2017 – while it didn’t “cure” him it did provide him with some necessary coping skills. Unfortunately what many parents fail to realize is there is no quick fix and kids are going to do stupid stuff. Some people need to hit rock bottom before they can see a need to change. The road to recovery is long, difficult and painful – if it is to happen at all. It is a choice the addict has to make for himself.
It sounds like these kids/parents need a reality check – not a lawsuit. I do hope WTC sent these boys home after they stole the van. At some point those kids need to be accountable for their actions!
And they are correct- there is nowhere to run. WTC is 40+ minutes from town in the middle of rural Montana surrounded by woods and farm land. It would take a day or 2 to walk to town.
Again, where is the harm?
Thousands of young men have gone through that program and are leading very productive lives today. WTC is a open facility and the word “Escape” is humorous to use to describe a patient that chooses to leave the facility. Sounds like you need to stop blaming a very reputable treatment center of over 35 years for your own failures as a parents.
Sounds like the parents should have enrolled them in a locked facility in the first place, knowing that even there they might have successfully run away. If that was what the staff said, they were exaggerating their ability to provide security.