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.