NORTHVILLE TOWNSHIP, Mich. – The state has agreed to pay $13 million to patients and staff of a state child psychiatric hospital who say they were terrorized by an unannounced active shooter drill that gained national attention.
The Hawthorn Center was a state-run psychiatric hospital for children in Northville Township, Michigan (the facility has since closed). On Dec. 21, 2022, the center conducted an active shooter drill. Patients and most of the staff were not informed ahead of time. Four law enforcement agencies who responded to panicked 911 calls from inside the hospital weren’t notified of the drill, either and responded as if the threat was real.
When patients and employees saw dozens of heavily armed police outside the psych hospital, they were convinced armed intruders were roaming their halls. The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, which operated the Hawthorn Center, has not admitted to any wrongdoing. The Hawthorn Center employee who planned the drill continues to work for MDHHS. Hawthorn Center patients and staff have been relocated to Walter Reuther State Psychiatric Hospital in Westland.
All investigative reports:
The $13 million settlement will go toward treatment and care of 50 patients and roughly 110 staff who say they were traumatized when they were falsely told a gunman was on the loose at the hospital. $57,000 will go to each juvenile patient; payout amounts to staff will vary, to be determined by individual trauma assessment.
“I wish they would come out and say that they were actually wrong, said David Horein about the state’s unwillingness to admit that the unannounced drill was a mistake. “That has been my standing point in this whole process. But $13 million is a large sum of money,” “And even if they don’t say they’re wrong, I think there’s a pretty big implication there that they did something and they needed to make it right.”
Horein’s 11-year-old son who has autism was a patient at the hospital during the drill.
“He’s still struggling,” Horein said. “We’re still trying to seek to get him more care.”
The kids who endured the unannounced drill are uniquely vulnerable, said attorney Robin Wagner, “This is a children’s psychiatric hospital and the idea that somebody would think it was even remotely a good idea to run a drill that would go to the deepest, deepest fears any of us have with impressionable children who already have psychiatric and neurological disabilities and scare them to death.” Wagner added, “I hope for starters that it teaches a really solid lesson to everyone within earshot of your reporting and of the news of this settlement, that you do not scare people like that. It’s all too real.”
One Hawthorn Center employee included in the settlement agreement had a role to play in the drill. She was instructed by supervisors to announce, convincingly, over a hospital loudspeaker that two gunmen were roaming hospital halls.
“I’ve spoken with her and she said, ‘I tried to say, are you sure this is a good idea?’ but she was ordered to do this. And she was so afraid,” Wagner said. “And that fear in her voice sounded so real.”
The settlement money won’t be handed out as a check; instead, a legal team will monitor its dispersal to assist the children with their medical bills. Many of the kids have special needs.
Believing intruders were in their workplace, frantic Hawthorn Center employees went into hiding, barricading themselves and their patients behind furniture, arming themselves – and the kids - with hairbrushes and other ordinary items. Mental health worker Naquana Jones recalled what happened that day.
“So I’m thinking how am I going to get out of here? And I was just thinking, I’m going to take this off his chair and bust this window and jump out the window.” Describing the active intruder loudspeaker announcement, Jones said, “So with them saying it, they said it again. They got AR-15. And I was just like, this is real.”
Horein said he wants accountability for those who made the decision. The manager who planned the active shooter drill still works as a physical plant supervisor for the state. He’s currently working at the Walter P. Reuther Hospital in Westland.
A statement from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services can be seen below.
“The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services takes the health and safety of our staff and patients very seriously, and felt it was in the best interest of all involved parties to settle this matter. We regret that our patients, staff and community were negatively affected by the unfortunate incident in December 2022. We commend our staff who worked quickly to engage law enforcement partners and the responding agencies who worked to resolve the situation. Following the incident, MDHHS offered Critical Incident Stress Management to Hawthorn staff, which included information about Employee Assistance Program resources that could provide behavioral health services to those affected by the event. The Joint Commission requires the state psychiatric hospitals conduct a hazard vulnerability analysis at least every two years to identify potential emergencies, including active shooter exercises. MDHHS is working on improved training and exercise processes as part of updating its emergency operations policies.”
MDHHS
The Court of Claims agreement document can be read in full below.
The class action certification with exhibits and allocation process can be read below.
The motion for class action can be read below.