LETTER: There’s more to the Northwest Academy story

Your series “Deserted in the Desert” about Northwest Academy ignored some important facts. Any entity working with maladapted youth — whether it is state-run or private — will have allegations. This is because many maladapted youth do not like being at these facilities, and they have a long history of dishonesty, exaggeration and manipulations. That doesn’t mean their allegations don’t need to be checked. They do. But to assume their allegations are correct is not right either.

We have state agencies and courts to fully examine allegations. It is one thing to make an allegation and let the press run with it. It is a whole other thing to be subject to cross examination and have other witnesses called to discredit the charges.

So when you report that Northwest Academy allegations were investigated and were unsubstantiated, you imply that the state agencies did not do a good job. But that is naive and unfair. The agencies did a good job. They simply found that many of the accusations were without adequate substance. That would be congruent with most allegations made by this unique population with their obvious agendas. The very fact that agencies did numerous investigations is evidence that claims did not go unchecked for years, as your article suggested from the beginning.

Finally, a long time ago I had the pleasure of working with Dr. Marcel Chappuis for a number of years. I can tell you that he would never abuse or mistreat any youth. He is one of the most kind and caring professionals I know.