Eight more former students joined a $25.5 million lawsuit Wednesday against a “tough love” boarding school in Central Oregon that was shut down by the state in 2009 over allegations it mistreated troubled teens in its care.
The new plaintiffs bring to 17 the number of people saying they were abused at the former Mount Bachelor Academy outside Prineville.
Attorney Kelly Clark said the growing number of plaintiffs will make it harder for the school’s owners to deny they mistreated students in the name of rehabilitation.
“One of the initial reactions when we filed the case from Mount Bachelor lawyers was basically that this was just a couple disgruntled former students and none of this ever happened,” Clark said from Portland. “The breadth of the class of plaintiffs makes it less likely and more difficult for Mount Bachelor Academy to simply dismiss this as none of it happened.”