The emancipation of Johnson Turner

[Stan]

The emancipation of Johnson Turner

By BROOK GRIFFIN, Chronicle Staff Writer

Johnson Turner, 16, sits in a chair in the lounge of the boy's dormitory at Mount Ellis Academy, a private Seventh-day Adventist school east of Bozeman.

His shaggy, red hair sticks out from under a Boston Red Sox cap, and he is calmly talking about emancipating himself from his family so he could spend his junior year at the school.

"Emancipation was the only way I was going to be able to return to school here," he says.

There is no doubt in his voice, no regret at having legally separated himself from his mother, Debbie Turner, of Great Falls, in August.

Johnson knows he hurt his mother with this decision, but going to Mount Ellis Academy was his first priority.

"I'm sure she has some hurt feelings left over after this," he says. "There's no break in the family as far as I see it."

But Debbie says the situation has been trying and there are some hard feelings.

"I'm still crushed by this," she says, adding that she has felt "used and abused" throughout the whole process.

Yet she visited her son in Bozeman a few weeks ago and says she knows she had to let him go.

"I've made peace," she said. "The only playing card left in all of this was forgiveness, so I can live."

The struggle

Johnson started at Mount Ellis as a freshman, returned to Great Falls the fall of his sophomore year and attended an alternative school, then opted to come back for his second semester.

Turner is bright and energetic. His grade-point average in his sophomore year at Mount Ellis was 3.89 -- nearly straight A's. He loves soccer and hopes to one day teach sports medicine or be a criminal profiler for the FBI.

But at the end of his sophomore year, his mother gave him an ultimatum. She wanted him home, attending a public school for his junior year.

Johnson said no. He liked it where he was.

Then, when Debbie came to get her son at the end of his sophomore year, Johnson refused to go, even running away into the nearby woods to avoid her. After that Johnson was more determined than ever to find a way to stay in Bozeman.

He spent the summer here, boarding with church members and working for a construction company hanging sheet-rock.

His mother was frantic. She couldn't reach him, didn't know where he was and eventually filed a missing person's report with the Gallatin County Sheriff's Office.

"It has been tearing us apart because (I) didn't see any need for it," she says. "He wanted it so badly he was willing to run from me, it was heartbreaking."

Johnson said he got the idea from his boss at work during the summer and mentioned it to his principal at Mount Ellis, Darin Wilkins, who tried to talk him out of going in that direction.

Johnson says his mom doesn't have a telephone in her apartment and the only way to reach her is at the middle school where she works as a teacher's aide. He says he tried to reach her in the weeks leading up to the court hearing, but couldn't. Eventually he stopped trying because he didn't want to draw things out.

Debbie says that once Johnson decided to pursue legally cutting himself off, there was no way for her to stop it. Eventually, it became easier just to let her son go than fight it.

The verdict for emancipation was granted by District Court Judge Mike Salvagni on Tuesday Aug. 9, at 8:30 a.m., just a few weeks before school started.

Debbie was not at the hearing. She says she didn't know when it was and Johnson admits to not having told her about it.

A handwritten letter from mother to son was submitted to the court, which, in effect, gave Salvagni what he needed to grant Johnson's request.

"I don't accept this situation any longer," she writes, "so you must Emancipate yourself because I'm not signing papers for (the) Academy for you next year."

Debbie says now that she blames school officials in part for encouraging her son's decision.

"They are supposed to be a family school," she says.

Wilkins says the situation has been awkward, but he maintains it was a family affair and the school did not get involved.

Rarely used

Emancipation basically grants early adulthood.

Johnson is not old enough to vote or drink alcohol, but now he can live wherever he wants without supervision and he doesn't need a parent's permission for anything.

On the other hand, from here on out, if he gets a credit card, the bills come to him. He is responsible for his own medical decisions. And he has to pay his own school tuition.

Emancipation cases are rare in the state, says Chris Manos, executive director of the state bar of Montana. Rarer still are cases when emancipation is granted.

"It's usually not if it's just a teenager that wants to be on their own," Manos says.

Wilkins believes that Johnson impressed the judge enough to grant independent status.

Johnson is required to write two reports to the court about his residential and school status, and could be held in contempt if he does not comply.

Family strains

Johnson lives in a dormitory at Mount Ellis during the school year. He has no pictures of his family in his room, and he stays on campus even over "stretch days," when the rest of the students go home for a few days.

Johnson admits his faith in God is a major part of his life and a big reason for wanting to stay at the academy.

But when asked about the fifth commandment to obey one's parents, he says going to the school was more important.

"When it wasn't going to work out for what I needed and wanted, I just felt (emancipation) was the right decision."

Yet he still describes his family life as being good -- despite the strain his decision has put on it.

He has a younger brother back in Great Falls and his mom, he says, is "really hard-working and family oriented. She values family and strong upbringing."

As for his father, Johnson says, "I've never met him. He wasn't there when I was born. I've been in a single-parent family all my life."

Johnson remains upbeat and positive about his situation and hopes to reconcile himself with his mother someday.

He has plans to attend college in Montana, although he is not sure where yet. He still hangs sheet-rock because he says it is good to "have something to fall back on."

His friends at Mount Ellis don't ask him much about the emancipation.

"Not yet anyway," he says. "It's my personal life and they leave it at that."

He is happy with his decision, but wouldn't encourage anyone else to do it.

"I wouldn't advise anyone to do it," he says. "It was a personal decision for me so it would have to be a personal decision for them."

[Amelia]

God is certainly leading this young man somewhere. He is on my prayer list.