{"id":12698,"date":"2021-06-29T19:02:35","date_gmt":"2021-06-29T23:02:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=12698"},"modified":"2021-06-29T19:02:49","modified_gmt":"2021-06-29T23:02:49","slug":"teens-death-at-lakeland-girls-academy-boarding-school-under-investigation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2021\/06\/29\/teens-death-at-lakeland-girls-academy-boarding-school-under-investigation\/","title":{"rendered":"Teen\u2019s death at Lakeland Girls Academy boarding school under investigation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The death of a 17-year-old girl attending a Lakeland boarding school is under review by the state\u2019s attorney\u2019s office, according to the Polk County Sheriff\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sheriff\u2019s office case \u201cis still open,\u201d according to a public information officer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Naomi Wood, 17, of Vermont, was found unresponsive at Lakeland Girls Academy, a faith-based residential boarding school that follows the Teen Challenge program, in May 2020 and was pronounced dead later that night, the child fatality report<\/a> from the Florida Department of Children and Families reads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In April 2020, she requested to see a doctor about chronic stomach pains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the report, rather than contacting a doctor, staff at the academy gave her Pepto Bismol 20 times as the symptoms persisted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cStaff members made the child get up for meals and fed her soup, as that is their protocol when children
are sick. They also prayed for her to get better. Facility staff did not seek any medical
attention for the child until she was found in her room unresponsive,\u201d the report reads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report included verified findings of \u201cinadequate supervision and medical neglect\u201d at the academy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe facility did not have appropriate protocols in place to address medical emergencies and\/or regular medical care with physicians,\u201d the report reads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leadership at Lakeland Girls Academy did not respond to phone calls or emails, and nobody answered the door at the facility on Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

According to the report, Lakeland Girls Academy created a \u201cmedical coordinator\u201d position in the wake of Wood\u2019s death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As of the April 2021 report, the position was filled by the director\u2019s wife until somebody else could be hired.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A child will now be taken to urgent care or ER if symptoms persist for three days, and parents will be immediately notified of medical issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wood\u2019s family posted on their business website that Wood had an \u201cinfectious smile\u201d and loved the beach and maple cotton candy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The family wrote Wood attended the school for \u201cyoung women who need a place where they can slow down, access therapy to help with mindsets and loss. They also develop new habits that build confidence in their abilities to make healthier choices for themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The family thanked the staff and added about her death, \u201cit\u2019s been the hardest thing for our family to go through and still seems impossible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former resident Grace Coburn of the program told the media, she thinks Wood\u2019s death could have been prevented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMedical assistance is not something that\u2019s easy to get there,\u201d Coburn said. \u201cSeeing doctors is not something that\u2019s frequent there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The death of a 17-year-old girl attending a Lakeland boarding school is under review by the state\u2019s attorney\u2019s office, according to the Polk County Sheriff\u2019s Office. The sheriff\u2019s office case… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12699,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"0","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[675],"class_list":["post-12698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-death-at-lakeland-girls-academy-boarding-school-under-investigation"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12698\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}