Ten months after islander Kelly Wright filed a lawsuit against Vashon’s school district and multiple administrators, the attorney for Vashon High School’s principal has filed a counterclaim alleging Wright’s motivation for filing the suit was retaliation.

The action was taken by Vashon High School principal Danny Rock and his atorney, Matt Bergman, and is independent from the school district and other named defendents.

The claim, filed in U.S. District Court Monday by Bergman, claims Wright is maliciously prosecuting the defendants, including Rock. It alleges that she filed her suit in April because school district officials exposed her clinic, Vashon Natural Medicine (VNM), for the “medically reckless” prescribing of “highly addictive and hazardous psychotropic drugs” to high school students.

Wright’s attorney, Jeannette Cohen, declined to comment on Monday.

According to the claim documents obtained by The Beachcomber, the counterclaim is built around the experiences of a 16-year-old VHS student given the pseudonym “Casey Doe,” who was allegedly experiencing “mild anxiety” and difficulties in social relationships in January of 2016, and turned to school support staff. The staff member then contacted Vashon Youth & Family Services, which provided vouchers for Doe to get medical care at VNM.

“Casey had been aware since the fall of 2015 that several of his or her friends at VHS had been prescribed medication for similar ailments from VNM,” the claim indicates. “Casey decided to follow these friends’ example and seek medication from VNM as ‘an easier way to be happy.’”

Doe was seen by one of the providers at VNM, who allegedly spent between 30 and 45 minutes with the teen and prescribed generic Xanax — commonly used to treat anxiety and panic attacks — and Lexapro — an anti-depressant. Both have been shown to be potentially dangerous for teens due to the effects of mixing the drugs with alcohol and the drug’s potential to increase suicidal thoughts in adolescents.

“Despite the highly risky side effects … Casey received minimal information from VNM,” the claim states before quoting Doe saying he or she “‘didn’t (receive) much about the medication itself.’”

The drugs were also prescribed without parental consent, which is legal under state law for those above the age of 15. Doe admits in the claim to not telling his or her parents about the decision because it “‘isn’t something that is really easy to do.’” While prescribing the medications was not illegal, the claim alleges the prescription of the medication and the lack of follow-up — there was reportedly no follow-up appointment at VNM or counseling — were “contrary to the generally accepted standard of care.”

Doe did research on the medications and eventually decided against taking them, but Doe’s parents learned about the drugs their teen had been prescribed and, seeing as Doe first saw school staff, asked the school about it.

“After learning Casey had been prescribed addictive medications without his knowledge or consent, Casey’s father ‘was shocked and appalled and very angry,’” the claim states before explaining that Doe’s father felt his child was taken advantage of. “My child had no idea what [he or she] had been given.”

VHS principal Rock and Vashon Island School District Superintendent Michael Soltman asked the school nurse her opinion, and she reportedly said the situation “was problematic.” She was asked to call Wright at VNM.

The call spurred an email from Wright in late January of 2016.

“All treatment recommended from our office is medically appropriate, and we follow accepted pediatric psychiatric standards of care,” Wright reportedly wrote in an email to school officials. “At Vashon Natural Medicine we specifically pursue training in pediatric emotional and behavioral disturbances.”

Three months after the email, Wright filed the $40 million suit against Vashon Island School District, Rock, Soltman and others. In that suit, in which depositions began this month, she alleges her daughter and another female student in the district were sexually harassed and administrators did nothing to prevent it or help the girls. Bergman’s counterclaim alleges the suit was fabricated and made to draw attention away from VNM. It goes on to explain that “as an involved Vashon community member,” Wright has been concerned with harassment, intimidation and bullying in Vashon’s schools and was appreciative of the district’s commitment to responding to such issues. One of the sources cited is a Nov. 25, 2015, letter from Wright to Rock in which she thanked Rock for the opportunity to make her voice heard and thanked him for what he and “all of VISD do for our children.” Another letter from Jan. 8, 2016, from Wright to a McMurray Middle School counselor took the same tone.

As Bergman pointed out, the tone of those emails is wholly different from the tone of Wright’s lawsuit, in which she accused school officials of negligence when dealing with her daughter’s alleged harassment. He also accused Wright of attempting to recruit patients into joining her “legal action against” VISD, including plaintiff K.H., the other student named in Wright’s case, who allegedly experienced similar harassment.

“On February 1, 2016 — one business day after … Wright sent her email to Defendants Soltman and Rock objecting to their scrutiny of her clinic’s prescription practices — K.H. was examined by Dr. Wright in her office,” the counterclaim indicates. “Despite the fact that K.H. had been seeking … treatment from VNM for over a year, Dr. Wright’s chart notes contain the first reference of any harassment, intimidation and bullying allegedly experienced by KH at VHS.”

Wright’s notes from that visit also reportedly reference Rock specifically.

KH allegedly testified and denied many of the statements attributed to her in those notes. But the counter claim filed Monday states Wright’s medical notes continued to embellish KH’s harassment. This reportedly continued even after Wright’s suit was filed.

“Dr. Wright abused the doctor-patient relationship by fabricating evidence in medical records” the counterclaim states.

Bergman’s action comes after months of court filings in which Wright attempted to seal all student and medical documents from use as evidence, citing privacy concerns.

Rock is not seeking any monetary compensation, but is seeking a formal, public apology from Wright and KH’s parents acknowledging claims “are baseless,” along with a decree prohibiting VNC from prescribing these drugs to minors without the knowledge or consent of their parents.

— Anneli Fogt