Wyoming Newspaper Controversy: Laramie Community College President Darrel Hammon Mishandled Troubled Student

Wyoming Newspaper Controversy: Laramie Community College President Darrel Hammon Mishandled Troubled Student

A suicidal student was allegedly the center of a controversial report blocked by a Wyoming judge this week.

According to the Associated Press, District Judge Peter Arnold ordered the Wyoming Tribune Eagle to refrain from publishing an article about a trip to Costa Rica that Laramie Community College President Darrel Hammon took with students in 2008. But yesterday, the judge annulled that decision.

Today, the Wyoming Tribune Eagle published the article, which details how Hammon mishandled caring for a student who exhibited suicidal behavior on the trip. According to the report, Hammon allowed an EMT on the trip to prescribe the student medication, even though the EMT did not have the credentials to do so. He also had others on the trip take away the student's razors so she couldn't cut herself, and tasked students with watching her at night:

[One student] said she put wet towels in front of the door and suitcases in the path from the door to the bed so she would hear if the troubled student tried to leave the room.

The student assigned to room with the troubled student also went to bed wearing a headlamp with a red light so she could check on her throughout the night.

The school has since revised its travel policy. Hammon told the Tribune that he "hopes to be able to present his side of the story at some point."

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