The father of a teenage girl who died at a Utah boarding school is suing the facility that he alleges ignored his daughter’s severe pain for weeks before her death.
In mid-December, Taylor Goodridge, 17, collapsed at Diamond Ranch Academy in Hurricane, Utah, after she reported feeling sick and was dead when police arrived, FOX 13 Salt Lake City reports.
The legal complaint filed by her father, Dean Goodridge, alleges that Taylor told staff she had severe stomach pains, who told her she was faking it and for her to drink water and take aspirin.
Utah’s Department of Health and Human Resources confirmed to the station that the school was placed on probation the day after Taylor died, which is standard protocol.
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The father of 17-year-old Taylor Goodridge is suing the Utah boarding school for alleged malpractice after daughter’s death.
(Dean Goodridge)
“Here is that this young teenager is sent down to Utah from the state of Washington to try and help her get her life back in order, and before they know it, she’s died from what we believe will ultimately prove out to be sepsis — and with no explanation. They had just called the family and said that she died of a heart attack,” Goodridge family attorney Alan Mortensen told FOX 13.
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“They had just called the family and said that she died of a heart attack,” Goodridge family attorney Alan Mortensen said.
(Dean Goodridge)
In October 2021, when Taylor was 16, she was reported as a missing teen in Snohomish County, Washington, according to FOX 13 Seattle. The local sheriff’s office had said she was last seen at a party with more than 100 people on a Saturday night. She was found safe at a home the following Monday morning.
Diamond Ranch Academy Director Ricky Dias told the TV station that they are cooperating “fully and transparently” with the state of Utah during the investigation and that the safety of students is their top priority.
Taylor Goodridge poses in this photo with a friend.
(Dean Goodridge)
Hurricane police are reportedly working with medical examiners to determine Taylor’s cause of death.
Fox News Digital has reached out to Mortensen for comment.
