Program faces legal action

A local therapeutic boarding school is facing three civil complaints brought on by families of former students.

The three complaints name Reflections Academy, Inc., Executive Director Michele Manning and employee Chaffin Pullan as defendants. All three were filed in 20th Judicial District Court.

The first lawsuit, filed October 9, 2018, alleges that the plaintiffs’ minor teenage daughter “was sexually abused and subjected to other physical, psychological and emotionally abusive conduct” by Pullan while she was a resident at Reflections Academy and claims the victim suffered physical, psychological and emotional injuries.

The second complaint was filed November 5. In it, the family alleges that while their daughter attended Reflections Academy in 2018, the defendants failed to live up to the duty to “provide professional services in a manner consistent with the representations it made on its website and in conformance with the standard of care expected of like professional service providers,” causing damages to the family. The complaint alleges that the program failed to implement appropriate safeguards and failed to ensure that staff were adequately trained. Court documents allege professional negligence resulting in inappropriate communications between Pullan and girls at the facility, inappropriate counselor-client relationships, and grooming of students to conform to sexual relationships.

The third complaint also names Reflections, Manning and Pullan as defendants. That complaint contains similar allegations to the first two lawsuits, including defendants’ failing to provide appropriate supervision of extracurricular activities. Damages alleged in the suit include emotional injury, therapeutic setbacks, loss of tuition and enhanced need for future therapeutic care.

According to the program’s website, its mission is “to empower adolescent girls to uphold high standards of character, academic achievement, physical fitness, and spiritual values in order to become valuable members of their families and society.”