Utah boarding school ignored teen’s sickness complaints before she died, ex-staff say

A Native American teenager who died while attending a Utah boarding school for at-risk youth had been sick in the weeks beforehand, but staff had been trained to assume students would lie about being ill and did not try to bring her to the hospital until the day she died, former staff members said in interviews to NBCnews.com.

Taylor Goodridge, 17, collapsed at Diamond Ranch Academy in Hurricane, Utah, on Dec. 20. While an official cause of death has not yet been determined, her family said in a lawsuit that they believe she died of sepsis, a life-threatening condition that arises from a body’s response to infection.

The Utah Department of Health and Human Services placed Diamond Ranch Academy’s license on “conditional status,” allowing it to remain open while the agency and the Hurricane Police Department investigate Taylor’s death. The Health and Human Services Department said the academy is “actively collaborating with investigators.”

Dean Goodridge, Taylor’s father, sued Diamond Ranch Academy in federal court on Dec. 30, alleging that the school knew his daughter was severely ill but told her to “suck it up” and take aspirin.

An attorney for Diamond Ranch said the facility has “substantial disagreement with many aspects” of the lawsuit and allegations by former staff, but could not respond in detail because of federal privacy law governing education and medical records.

“One thing we have agreement on, it’s a tragic circumstance,” said Bill Frazier, the school’s attorney. “Any time you have a 17-year-old die, it’s horrendous and we’re crestfallen by it.”

NBC News spoke to seven former staff members of Diamond Ranch Academy, including five who said Taylor was ill on different occasions in the three months before her death but was not taken off campus to be evaluated. Four spoke on the condition of anonymity because they fear retaliation by the academy’s leadership. Their accounts echoed the claims made in Goodridge’s lawsuit.

“There would be nights she would throw up and staff didn’t care to do anything,” said Tianamarie Govan, who supervised girls during night shifts at Diamond Ranch Academy until Oct. 20, adding that Taylor was complaining of severe stomach and lower back pains at that time. “There were times I’d have to stay in her room to make sure she was OK. She had a really high fever one night, but the [supervisory] staff refused to allow me to use a thermometer to check it.”

Read the complete NBC News story here.

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