One year later, federal response to parental concerns about Native school still unclear
Ted McDermott Public Service Journalism Team
These allegations from students, parents and staff of the Flandreau Indian School – an off-reservation Bureau of Indian Education-operated boarding school – are at the center of this Lee Enterprises Public Service Journalism Team investigation. But they are not news to the BIE itself.
The bureau has known about these concerns – as well as others – since the fall of 2023. That’s when Lexi Follette, an alumnus of the school and the mother of a recent Flandreau graduate, filed a lengthy complaint with the federal government about the treatment of staff and students at the boarding school located in southeastern South Dakota.