When reputation is involved, integrity is often thrown out the window. And that’s exactly what Indian Springs Middle School of Indiana did when it attempted to conceal the suicide attempt of a troubled student. The troubled girl, who was adopted from foster care and has special needs from Fetal Alcohol, tried to end her life multiple times during a math class at school. Of course, the staff was there to stop and prevent her from harming herself. However, they did the shadiest act of blackmailing her father to keep him from filing a complaint with the DOE.
Initially, after the incident, the Indiana school and its lawyer called the dad in to pick up his daughter due to “behavioral concern,” but they didn’t specify why. He pushed for answers for several days, and after two weeks, the school finally agreed to disclose what happened if he signed a release form promising not to inform the DOE. “If I would have known the content in the incident report, I would have never signed that release,” the father recalls in a post on Reddit.
But it gets worse; once he signed the release, the school then took the form to an attorney to have it signed again. As a result, the school was getting a thin layer of legal protection for themselves. “So the DOE told me they couldn’t investigate it because lawyers were involved,” the dad groaned. “They totally blindsided me and had me essentially representing myself without me even knowing it.” Quite a nefarious move on their part. “Talk about blackmail to cover up the fact my special needs child almost died.”
“Shame on these people,” a commenter said, encouraging him to get a lawyer involved to help fight back. “The release is irrelevant, a scare tactic,” another user chimed in. “Had you not signed, they would have sat on the info until they got a court order.” Others suggested he post the story on other platforms as well, such as Facebook, and even consider getting the media involved. “Start naming names and put people on blast,” one Redditor remarked.
Fortunately, the Indiana dad claims to be doing his best to get lawyers involved and get back at the school for what they did. And personally, I agree with one particular commenter’s recommendation:
“If I were in your shoes, I would be pulling my kid from that school so fast. There would be absolutely NO way I would trust them with my child every day, let alone a child with special needs that is supposed to have additional support and supervision in place.”
