Students leave en masse
Questions surface about Navajo Prep's response to suicide attempts

By Brian Hassler
Staff Writer

FARMINGTON — Of the nearly 300 students who began the year at Navajo Prep, only 20 students remain in the aftermath of the suicide of a 16-year-old female student on Monday, and accusations have surfaced concerning additional suicide attempts.

"Since the last suicide in October, one girl slit her wrists and a boy overdosed on pills and was taken to the hospital," said one parent who had picked up his child on Tuesday. "I don't think that they're taking care of the kids. As parents, we pay money for our kids to go there for this education, and I think the school should be more responsible."

Though police are investigating the possibility of additional suicide attempts and whether there is a connection with the school and the suicidal actions that have taken place, no calls were made to police concerning suicide attempts at the school.

"I pulled out the past year of incidents that we have been called out to handle," said Det. Sgt. Robert Perez. "We responded for runaways, narcotics violation and that sort of thing, but I don't see anything of a violent nature except for these two incidents."

If a suicide attempt is made or carried out in an average neighborhood or public location throughout Farmington, the police would be contacted, but if a suicide attempt occurs at a school like Navajo Prep, there is an additional step that takes place instead of the police automatically being called.

"I know they have in house counselors and a nurse at Navajo Prep and it would be up to the school to notify law enforcement," said Perez.

"If there were attempts and we weren't notified and they were just taken to the hospital by the school or parents, we would never hear about it. The first people notified are in-house nurses. If it's handled in-house, we never hear about it and that's what I'm worried about."

Calls to Navajo Prep weren't responded to and parents spoke of their concern for the lack of culture and assistance that students at Navajo Prep receive.

"Our son has been there so far and I've been talking to other school districts," said another parent. "They have suicide prevention task forces and they have protocols and standards that they are supposed to follow. What is Navajo Prep doing about this? It needs to be voiced and attention needs to be given to what is going on at the school."

As for the student that committed suicide on Monday, Perez said that investigators are awaiting reports from the Office of the Medical Investigator (OMI) in Albuquerque. Those reports will give investigators a better idea of what happened, including a toxicology report that will test for any chemicals that might have been in the student's body.

Perez added that they don't suspect that there were chemicals in the students system, but that one of the tests will check for that.

Additional information about Monday's suicide reveals that the student did hang herself in a fashion similar to the Oct. 26 suicide of Kyle Valenzuela, but school officials aren't speaking about the accusations of multiple suicide attempts.

"If someone ingested medication, they call the nurse but they don't have to call us," said Perez. "I can't comment on practices of the school, but my suspicion is that if this is happening, we don't know about it. We have not been notified, if it is happening; we wouldn't hear about it."

Brian Hassler is The Independent's Four Corners reporter based in Shiprock. Contact him at (505) 360-7862 or via email at brianhassler@hotmail.com.