Students being coerced, under threat of punishment, to take psychotropic medication.
A lack of training and a disorganized system contributed to “med errors,” including some students being “given the wrong medication," said one long-time teacher at the BIE-operated Flandreau Indian School.
The Flandreau Indian School Student and Parent Handbook says, “Students who are on medication will be required to take their prescribed medications. Failure to take prescribed medication is a Health and Safety issue and can result in FIS disciplinary action.”
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The Interior Department's Office of Inspector General provided 18 pages of documents in response to a FOIA request for six years of complaints about Flandreau Indian School, but they redacted every single word that those complainants wrote.
Lexi Follette, an alumnus of Flandreau Indian School and the mother of a recent graduate, filed a lengthy complaint with the federal government about the treatment of staff and students at the boarding school in the fall of 2023. “There’s so much potential for these schools to heal our people,” she said. “And they’re missing that.”
Lexie Follette's 50-page complaint about Flandreau was appended with 48 pages of supporting documents and sent to the Interior Department’s Office of Inspector General in September 2023.
"Why are they doping up our children like this?" one parent said. "Why do they deserve to do this?"
Families and friends of Flandreau Indian School graduates celebrate outside the school on May 14, 2024.
The entrance to Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kansas, is shown in April 2024. The U.S. Interior Department’s Office of Inspector General referred complaints about Haskell to the BIE to investigate itself, much as it did at Flandreau.
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland speaks at the opening of a session to hear from survivors of government-sponsored Native American boarding schools at Montana State University, on Nov. 5, 2023, in Bozeman.
The Flandreau Indian School Student and Parent handbook explicitly states, "Failure to take prescribed medication is a Health and Safety issue and can result in FIS disciplinary action.”
In this Series
Special Report: Problems persist within federal schools for Native Americans
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Updated
Native American kids cite abuse, danger at understaffed school, feds join calls for reform
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Updated
One year later, federal response to parental concerns about Native school still unclear
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Updated
Untrained employees mishandled kids’ meds at Native American boarding school, staff allege
- 8 updates
