Family: School could have prevented suicide

When students at Shonto Preparatory School had emotional problems, the staff would often tell them to "walk it off."

Nadine Manygoats was doing just that when she decided to walk to the school's stadium, fashion a noose from the laces of her sneakers, and hang herself from the bleachers a year ago on May 13.

Now her family has filed a lawsuit against the school in Navajo Nation Family Court, claiming that if it had had a coherent suicide prevention policy in place, the troubled 16-year-old might still be alive.

The family is asking for compensatory and punitive damages, but leaves the amount to be determined by the court.

Shonto Superintendent Richard McClements declined to comment on the allegations.

"It's a tragedy," he said of Manygoats' death. "It's a terrible tragedy. The only news I have for you is that the school's insurance company has designated the school's attorney to handle the suit, although the expectation is that it will ultimately be handled by U.S. attorneys" because the incident occurred on federal trust land.

The suit names the school board, the then principal, superintendent, the dean of students and a counselor as defendants. It was filed by Albuquerque attorneys Theodore Barudin and Russell Sacks on behalf of Manygoats' parents, Charlene and David Manygoats of Tonalea, Ariz., and her aunt, Charlotte Dayzie Sloan.

According to their complaint, the school's faculty and staff had ample warning that Nadine was suicidal, besides the fact that she had told several people she planned to end her life.

In the previous two months, she had cut her wrists and overdosed on sleeping pills, and her parents had gone so far as to arrange a conference with her teachers in March 2009 to express their fear their daughter might try to kill herself at school.

They felt their concerns were brushed off, with one teacher telling them, "It is just her way of craving attention," the complaint states.

Every school in Indian Country should be on the alert for suicide because of the high incidence of suicide among Native American teens, the suit further argues.

Plenty of training and programs are available from the federal government and elsewhere, the family argues in the suit, and in fact Shonto Prep receives about $92 per student in federal funding to address, among other things, suicide prevention.

But on May 13, 2009, Manygoats didn't need a written policy. It might have sufficed to have someone walk with her.

According to the narrative laid out in the suit, May 13, 2009, started out as an ordinary day. Manygoats seemed fine as she and her boyfriend, Travis Luther, rode the school bus together and carried their books into their first-period biology class.

But as the class wore on, Luther noticed a sudden dip in her mood. About 9:30, she called him on her cell phone from her second-period class, worrying that he was going to break up with her.

Luther assured her they were not breaking up and he merely needed some time to think about their relationship. For the first of several times that morning, Manygoats announced she was going to kill herself.

A little later, Manygoats called Luther again and asked him to meet her in the conference room after class. She also called her mother and asked her to pick her up from school and take her home. Charlene Manygoats immediately left her job in Red Lake, Ariz., and started driving.

At 10 o'clock, Luther and Manygoats met in the conference room. Manygoats again expressed concern that Luther was breaking up with her. Luther again tried to console her.

At that point, school counselor Gwen Todachine walked in and asked, "What's going on here?" according to the document.

Luther told Todachine that Manygoats was upset. Consistent with the advice she had gotten from Todachine and others many times before, Manygoats announced she was going to take a walk.

Five minutes after she strode out of the room, she called Luther again and repeated her intention to commit suicide. Luther put the phone on speaker so Todachine could hear.

Todachine told Luther to stay in the conference room and she would alert some staff members.

At 10:45, Charlene Manygoats arrived on campus and asked to see her daughter. The principal's secretary and another employee told her Nadine was "out walking."
"No one's with her?" Charlene Manygoats recalls asking. Neither employee replied.

Meanwhile, Luther, still in the conference room, asked if he could go and find Manygoats, upon which Todachine allegedly told him she was with her mother - "a blatant falsehood," charges the suit.

"Charlene Manygoats engaged in a desperate search for her daughter," the suit reads, "but it was too late."
At 11 a.m., Manygoats fashioned a noose from her shoelaces and hung herself from the middle railing of the bleachers, in full view of passersby. Dean of Students Elroy Watson and others ran to her aid, supporting her body and trying to get the noose untied.

Charlene Manygoats, still walking the campus looking for her daughter, heard his cries of "We need a knife!" She produced one from her truck's glove compartment and ran toward the ruckus.

She cut the noose from around her daughter's neck and Manygoats was transported to the Tuba City hospital. She died early the following morning.

Shortly after the hanging incident, according to the suit, "Gwen Todachine told Travis Luther than Nadine Manygoats had tried to hang herself, but had gone home with her mother, and she was going to be OK."
It wasn't until the following morning at school that Luther learned the truth.

According to the suit, Charlene Manygoats tried repeatedly to contact the school over the next 10 days, wanting to know the circumstances surrounding her daughter's death.

"None of the defendants returned her call or offered a formal apology to the family," the suit reads.

In addition to being a wrongful death, the incident "was shocking to the Navajo conscience and violated Ba'ako'nini'ziin, which means, 'should have been aware of,'" the lawsuit states.

In addition to the monetary compensation, the suit asks the judge to order Shonto Prep to implement a suicide intervention program, immediately evaluate any suicide problems at the school, end the "walk it off" policy and immediately train all administrators, faculty and staff in suicide intervention and protection.

"Shonto Preparatory School failed and continues to fail to adopt and implement suicide prevention and intervention policies, despite knowing the high incidence of Navajo teen suicide such as what happened with Nadine," Sacks and Barudin stated in a joint press release on May 13. "One year ago today, Nadine cried into the wind and no one listened. The family wants to know why."

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