Spring Creek Lodge (Academy)
Location: Thompson Falls, MT
Administrators: Patty Witt.
Not recognized by the Department of Education.
Presently houses approximately 500 children.
Also houses legal adults at an extension of the program called Camas Ranch.
Spring Creek Lodge Academy is located north of Thompson Falls, Montana. It is placed on a small gravel road a mile south of Spring Creek Lane on Blue Slide Road. The official address is Spring Creek Road 75, Thompson Falls, Montana 59873. The physical address is 1342 Blueslide Road, Thompson Falls, MT 59873.
It operates under an umbrella organization of WWASP. The owner/Director Cameron Pullan worked for Robert Lichfield in 1991/1992 at WWASP flagship program, Cross Creek Manor.
It did open in 1997 and have room for 421 detainees.
It claimed that it was redrawn from WWASP in 2006, but it still is marketed along the other WWASP facilities and the billing office is the same for all WWASP programs.
History:
1996: Spring Creek Lodge Academy Opened.
2002 August: A staff member was assaulted by a student who wanted to leave.
2002 September: A child who wanted to leave the facility hit a staff member with a vacuum-cleaner attachment.
2003 March: A staff member was charged with sexually assaulting 2 boys in "the hobbit."
2003 June: A child was beaten by other students with a shower-curtain rod.
2004: The staff member charged with sexually assaulting 2 boys pleaded guilty to criminal child endangerment.
2004 October: 16 year-old Karlye Newman committed suicide at Spring Creek Lodge Academy.
2005 February: Keith Wood, a staff member at the facility, shot a man 7 times before killing himself.
2005: Principal Mickey Manning landed a spot on the Montana committee that will oversee Spring Creek Lodge Academy.
2005 September: A child escaped from the facility and fell down a cliff. After being released from the hospital, the child was transferred to Tranquility Bay.
Noteworthy:
WWASPS founder Robert Lichfield is building a house behind Spring Creek Lodge Academy.
Lichfield's brother-in-law Dan Peart is a Vice President of Spring Creek Lodge Academy.
