Wilderness Treatment Center Provides Insufficient Security, Class Action Says

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.