LAS VEGAS (KSNV) — When a boarding school shut down, the owners arrested for forty counts of child abuse, we had questions.
We had a hard time getting answers.
To give you an example, when we asked who these students were and how they found the school or the school found them we couldn’t get a straight answer.
Nye County told us repeatedly on the phone that these teenage students were private, that their parents chose to send them there. We found out that wasn’t true.
There is video footage of Nye county commissioners voting to send their juvenile court kids to Northwest. The state of Nevada tells us county courts did send young offenders there.
That’s where we started, with confusion over who the victims were.
It shouldn’t surprise you then that if the State and County knew so little about who was living there, they seemed to know even less about the person running it.
The image that sticks with you the most when you watch the video of Caleb Hill’s arrest for child abuse is the image of a young girl being carried down the stairs by Sheriff’s deputies.
The video was shot by those Nye County deputies.
The conditions inside the school they raided were described in vivid detail by their Public Information Officer, they included broken bones that went untreated.
The Sheriff’s Department raided Northwest Academy on January 28th after a former student claimed their teacher, Caleb abused them. In his arrest report, those deputies said Hill would slam children to the ground as a form of discipline.
Weeks later his employers, the owners of Northwest Academy Marcel and Patti Chappuis were also arrested.
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Owners of Northwest Academy arrested, face 43 counts of child abuse
The Nevada Division of Public and Behavioral Health has released the following statement:
The Division of Public and Behavioral Health, Child Care Licensing, and the Division of Child and Family Services are aware of recent developments regarding the arrests of two more Northwest Academy (NWA) staff. The individuals arrested do not provide direct supervision of the children currently onsite. Northwest Academy Staff are working to move children to alternative placements as soon as possible. DCFS is assisting with finding alternative placements for the children currently onsite at NWA.
The Northwest Academy staff onsite are cleared and qualified to supervise the children in accordance with regulatory requirements. Child Care Licensing has been and will continue to monitor the facility for compliance with child care regulations. Child Care Licensing notes adolescents onsite are being supervised by approved caregivers who passed background checks and meet qualifications. The Division of Child and Family Services is working with the local authorities and parents to ensure the safety of the children involved.
UPDATE (12 p.m.) Northest Academy’s owners, Marcel and Patricia Chappuis, were arrested just before midnight on Tuesday night. They face 43 counts of child abuse and neglect, and are being held on $100,000 bail.
LVMPD assisted the Nye County Sheriff’s Department in apprehending the owners on felony child abuse warrants. They were apprehended at their residence on Painted Dunes Drive without incident.
In a statement released Wednesday afternoon, the Nye County Sheriff’s Office said the charges were related to the facility’s “unsafe water.”
The Nevada Division of Environment Protection issued an order in 2018 requiring bottled water for drinking, cooking and washing because of high levels of containment’s in the facility’s water, according to the sheriff’s office.
Detectives began investigating last month and learned the facility would allegedly run out of drinking water, including during the summer.
Students would have to drink tap water, according to the sheriff’s office, and staff were allegedly required to use the tap water for cooking and cleaning.
“Witnesses reported Patty Chappuis told kitchen staff to cook with tap water,” Sgt. Adam Tippetts said in a recorded statement. “They also reported that empty Sparkletts bottles were brought into the kitchen, and staff were told that if anyone asked if they used the bottled water for cooking, that they were to tell them ‘yes.'”
Patty Chappuis also faces two additional counts of child abuse from alleged physical altercations with students, Tippetts said.
The two have their first court appearance scheduled for tomorrow. No information on whether Northwest Academy will remain open has been released.
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Vegas Lost: The State acted against boarding school months before arrests
We have learned that the State of Nevada was suspicious of Medicaid reimbursements filed by owners of the troubled boarding school months before those owners, Marcel and Patricia Chappuis were arrested and charged with child abuse.
When they noticed the suspicious activity they stopped payment to the school immediately and planned to investigate whether fraud was committed.
RELATED | Vegas Lost: Northwest Academy’s troubled past with the state
The State’s DHCFP office did not go into specifics of their suspicions but would confirm that Northwest Academy had failed to tell them their psychiatrist had left the school in 2017.
When officials at Northwest Academy noticed the missed payment they filed a restraining order in Nye County court claiming that they “would be forced to close before it is afforded an opportunity for review” by the state. They argued to Judge Steven Elliot that the school “had no other remedy at law without an injunction by the courts.”
On July 12, Judge Elliot granted a restraining order which stopped the State from denying Northwest Academy Medicaid dollars.
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Hello,I was in Tranquility Bay for 27.5 months from 1/01 to 5/03, unlike some , I shut up and put up, so I didn’t lay on my face on my own bath towel for most of the day except to eat meals and do jumping Jack’s after. I had a problem adjusting to the life so I wrote probably over 100 5,000 word essays that were finished after the first paragraph of WHY I was writing my essay on the rule I broke and how to not do again. I made staff my friend, they didn’t verbally abuse you unless you acted out, or were gay, then all games off, women did not like the gay girls. I heard screaming into the night, every night since my window faced the boys side. It wasn’t that bad for the girls as it was the boys, but I do have a girl I knew from home who, was there before me, the first time i saw her her face was bruises, they broke her jaw that time. It seems so long ago. I cant believe people are still running this program, the rape and molestation classes, cant remember the name but I think I just saw the name attached in a post that he owned a Nevada facility. This place is horrible and it was only because some of us just learned to deal that we didn’t have it worse, but they always threatened us with high impact. Casa by the sea, but oh it was that fat white lady seminar instructor….o she was evil. They all are to know it was a money scam, hell every consequence we got, our parents paid for our self correct, .50 more if staff corrected. If anyone remembers me. “Hey”