Spring Creek Lodge Academy

Spring Creek Lodge Academy was a boarding school located in Thompson Falls, Montana.[1] The school, formerly known as Spring Creek Community, was first opened in the 1970s by Nancy and Steve Cawdrey.[2] In 1996, the school and the property were purchased by Cameron Pullan and Dan Peart and given the name Spring Creek Lodge Academy.[3] For several years the school was associated with the Utah-based World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools.[4][5] The school was opened as a place to address behavioral issues of young people from across the United States as well as motivate students for success.[1]

Spring Creek Lodge Academy has been repeatedly criticized by Montana-based and national news organizations for its lack of governmental oversight, child abuse and neglect, and conditions which the New York Times has called "physically and psychologically brutal."[6][7] Spring Creek staff used highly controversial means of subduing children, including the use of solitary confinement in a small building called "The Hobbit."[8] A 2021 article in The Missoulian stated "[t]roubled programs like Spring Creek Lodge, which kept children in locked sheds as a form of punishment, have seen owners move from one program to the next in Sanders County."[9] According to a 2003 New York Times article, which came out while the program was still operating, "the program and its staff have been accused of sexual abuse, physical violence and psychological duress."[10] Survivors of the program have gone on to write about the horrors of the experience.[11][12]

In 2019 The Missoulian published a series of articles about the troubled teen industry, specifically addressing the lack of oversight at Spring Creek, abuses committed by staff, and the suicide of a 16 year old girl while in the program.[13] Before her suicide, the girl had been punished by being forced to carry a bucket of rocks, according to depositions by the school’s owners and staff.[14]

Accusations against Spring Creek, as well as similar "troubled teen" programs in western Montana, have been rampant, and have led state legislators to propose various forms of action.[15] According to Rep. Ellie Hill Smith, who attempted to bring a bill regulating these programs before the Montana Legislature in 2017, "[t]he Montana Family Foundation kills it every time. They say people have a right to religious education. I say to them, 'I don't have a problem with that. What I have a problem with is religious education or group homes that don't have to comply with state laws like the rest of our schools.'''[16]

At its peak enrollment, Spring Creek Lodge Academy housed over 500 students and employed about 200 individuals in various positions, making it the largest employer in Sanders County at that time.[1] Spring Creek Lodge Academy was also the largest of WWASP affiliated programs.[17]

In 2010, the Montana-based Academy for National Native Leadership purchased the former Spring Creek facility and began to offer college classes at the school.[18]