Editor's Note: This is the final article in a four-part series covering the May 23, 2014 plane crash in which four people died near Whiskey Creek Airport, just outside Silver City, New Mexico. This portion addresses changes made at Aldo Leopold School to try to prevent another student tragedy and comments from two parents.
By Mary Alice Murphy
For www.grantcountybeat.com
After the private plane crash on Friday, May 23, 2014, in which four people died'three Aldo Leopold Charter School students and the pilot, Dr. Peter Hochla'the parents of ALCS students Michael Mahl, 16, Ella Myers, 16, and Ella Jaz Kirk, 14, thought they would hear something from the school on what happened to their children in the crash.
They waited to hear, but heard nothing, so they came together to request changes at the school, by speaking in front of the ALCS Governing Council. Not receiving any comments from the school, the parents in October 2014 filed a complaint against the estate of the pilot and the school. The settlement of the complaint was announced January 22, 2016.
"What new policies and procedures have you put in place since then?" Plaintiff's attorney Kendrick Dane of Albuquerque asked ALCS Director Eric Ahner in a deposition about a year after the filing of the complaint by the families of the students.
"Specific that are relevant to this trip, we have developed a school-approved activities policy that strives to, one, clarify what is and what is not a school activity; and number two, puts in place how we proceed if we plan on pursuing something as a school activity," Ahner said. "We also have done a significant set of revisionsGǿ to our backpacking plan, now called the Backpack Risk Management Guidelines. Those are the two that seem most relevant.
"We've passed a Safe School Plan, but that's, by and large, part of the templates that the State expects of us," Ahner said. "The two policies previously mentioned, to me, are largely developed in light of trying to prevent something like this from occurring in the future."
"When were those changes put into effect?" Dane asked.
"Both officially at the beginning of this academic year (2015-2016)," Ahner said.
Harry Browne, ALCS finance manager and one of the founders of the charter school, also gave a deposition to plaintiffs' attorney, Kendrick Dane.
"We had a blanket acknowledgement-of-risk form that parents signed when they enrolled their students at our school, and... for certain trips under certain conditions, parental permission was required," Browne said.
He said circumstances for the permission slip have been more clearly defined since the Gǿcrash.
"Is it fair to say that an airplane ride involving students and being set up by a teacher would be such a circumstance where the school would have required a parental permission slip?" Dane asked.
[Editor's Note: The parents did sign permission slips for their children to take the flight, but were not informed that it was not a school-sponsored trip, that the pilot had not been vetted in any way, and were under the impression that the school had approved the trip, which turned out to be false.]
"It's fair to say the school would now require communication about that trip and would have then decided whether it was a trip that required more or not," Browne said. Gǿ"I think at that time, it was not clear that that Gǿwas required, actually, and I wouldn't even have said, Gǿyes, it was required. I think that a teacher who Gǿbelieved what they were doing was not a school function, even though it was related to schoolwork, would not have Gǿ been under any requirement that you could point to in any procedure or policy to communicate that."
"Is there any policy,Gǿ whether it's written or otherwise, that clearly delineates the difference between a school function and a function that's not necessarily considered a school function but relates directly to schoolwork?" Dane asked.
"Not prior to July of 2015," Browne replied. He explained that a policy is now in place. "It should be in the employee handbook.... It is right now in the minutes of the governing council. It's on our website. But we have not yet come out with a new edition of the employee handbook."
"Based on all of your meetings and correspondence and involvement in Gǿrevising this policy, what is your understanding, as an Gǿemployee of Aldo Leopold, of what the policy change is?" Dane asked.
"Let me make clear, I was not involved in developing it at all," Browne said. "So my understanding is based Gǿ on the presentation of the policy by Eric Ahner at a staff meeting, plus reading it online. ...My understanding is that any staff Gǿmember is obligated to communicate with the director about any trip that involves students; and to give the Gǿdirector an outline of what the trip will entail; and at that point, the director will determine whether Gǿthis is something that should be considered a school trip or not.
"If it is not, there are a series of proscriptions: You can't organize the trip at the Gǿschool; you can't collect money for the trip at the Gǿschool; you can't advertise the trip at the school; Gǿthings like that; and that if it is, then there are Gǿ procedures to be followed in terms of filing a safety Gǿplan, transportation plan, estimating costs," he continued. "Those procedures are all the ones we already had in place.
"There's an additional procedure then that follows that's not up to the schools that sponsor the trip but Gǿis up to Eric Ahner to implement, which is assessing the risk involved in that trip. That's a new addition," Browne said. Gǿ"There's a new requirement that he consult with a Gǿrisk assessor; and that that assessor will provide an Gǿopinion about the level of risk; and that Eric will not Gǿapprove a trip that is a high-risk activity. The trip has to have enough safeguards to make it an acceptable risk, even if that's an elevated risk.
Dane asked: "Is it fair to say that some of the curriculum at Aldo Leopold is highly experiential in terms of the learning process?"
"Yes," Browne replied. "That's our mission."
"Are all of these trips... viewed as important to the learning or child-development process? Why is it -- why is it important to you, as an educator?" Dane asked.
"Because I view our role, I guess, quite Gǿidealistically," Browne replied. "I view our role as educators in Gǿgeneral and at Aldo to prepare students to be really engaged in life, to make a difference in their communities, to envision and help carry out changes that improve the world, and I believe they are much better equipped to do that if they've gone through high school actually experiencing how the world works in different ways and not just learning about it from books and movies."
John Mahl, Michael's father, spoke to the Beat last week.
He said right after the crash, he and his wife, Jennifer, "were numb. Lawyers from all over the country are contacting you. The school is digging in its heels. We felt like we were not getting the answers we wanted as to why the crash happened."
"I'm glad we filed the complaint against the school and the pilot's estate, because changes at the school have been made going forward." Mahl told the Beat. "We paid an investigator to determine the chain of events. If we had settled only with the pilot, I don't think significant changes would have taken place at the school.
"I think the school's counsel did not give them good advice," Mahl said. "Everyone was numb. The students were reeling, too."
"Now, I just want to move on," he continued. "I want to walk in forgiveness. I choose to believe the best in people. I'm glad the settlement is over, because I'm tired of reliving that day.
"It's too bad we had to get through it to get the truth," Mahl said. "The school agreed to stay in mediation. Mistakes were made at the school, but Ahner is taking responsibility. I'm impressed by the tone of the school to choose to make changes. The school didn't have to do that.
"I do believe the pilot should not have done what he did with precious cargo," Mahl concluded.
Jennifer Douglass, Ella Myer's mother, told the Beat that people "donG