Mary Fulp, the Colony High School Principal who was forcibly – and unlawfully – removed from her Mat-Su home on Jan. 18 by Alaska State Troopers and required to undergo mental treatment for three days at Mat-Su Regional Medical Center, has hired an attorney.
Fulp is the 2022 Alaska Principal of the Year, and highly respected in the educational community. Last week, however, she posted several videos recounting a recent life-changing religious experience. Several of her family members were concerned about the videos and asked a judge to issue an ex parte order that she be forcibly required to undergo psychiatric testing and treatment.
On Jan. 24, Alaska’s Commissioner of Public Safety issued a public apology, acknowledging that law enforcement had no authority to remove Fulp from her home or force her to enter a medical facility.
The Anchorage-based Thompson Law Group is now providing legal assistance for Fulp. On Jan. 26, the firm issued the following statement on her behalf. It recounts the disturbing treatment and violation of Fulp’s civil liberties.
FULL STATEMENT FROM THOMPSON LAW GROUP
Principal of the year, Mary Fulp, has hired the Thompson Law Group to help her through her recent wrongful involuntary commitment. She has been contacted by various press agencies to provide a statement, and respectfully, at this time, she asks that all inquires stop, and all communications be directed to her attorney, Darryl L. Thompson, Esq.
Principal Fulp will not be availing herself to any interviews at this time. Frankly, she needs time to heal.
She was forced into a mental health facility without a court order, by those with whom she and the community place their trust, the Department of Public Safety (DPS). DPS has candidly acknowledge their officers should have never forced her into a 72-hour mental health commitment. To DPS’ credit, they have already conceded that their officers did not follow proper procedures to assure that a judge had actually made a determination that she was a risk of harm to herself or others, to justify the deprivation of her freedom.
At no time did she pose a risk of harm to herself or others, and she should have never been forcibly placed into a mental health facility. It is clear there was no court order and no judicial finding. Yet she was forced by law enforcement, who carry the badge of trust and the authority of a weapon on their side, into a mental health facility, a horrible nightmare in and of itself.
To compound matters, the mental health facility knew it had no valid court order to hold her, yet they allowed the DPS to place her in the facility and kept her there without her consent for days, during which time she was traumatized by inhumane treatment.
She was strapped to a gurney, held down by several staff and forcibly injected with psychotropic medication without her consent and without a court order authorizing the administration of such medications.
She spent days in a cold dark mental health hospital room, during which time staff breached her federally protected HIPPA rights by disclosing their “opinions” as to her circumstances to individuals who did not possess any authorization to receive her federally protected HIPPA private mental health information. This traumatic experience is a free citizen’s worst nightmare, and this broken system has caused her, and her children, inexcusable and immeasurable harm.
Respectfully, she needs time to heal, but she does appreciate the outpouring of support for this difficult time.
