KALAMAZOO, MI (WKZO AM/FM) — A civil rights lawsuit is being filed against a Kalamazoo youth home after a teen died while being wrongly restrained by staff members.
On Monday the family of 16-year-old Cornelius Fredericks filed the lawsuit for $100 million dollars against Lakeside Academy and their managing company Sequel Youth and Family Services. The lawsuit claims negligence leading to wrongful death.
Fredricks went into cardiac arrest and passed away on May 1st, just two days after he was restrained at Lakeside Academy for reportedly throwing a sandwich.
WXYZ in Detroit reports that Marko Law, PLLC is representing the case and compares Fredricks’ death to the death of George Floyd.
It states, “In fact, video from Lakeside Academy even shows a staff member placing his/her weight directly on Cornelius’s chest for nearly ten minutes as Cornelius lost consciousness. Cornelius’s scream of “I can’t breathe” was not enough to get the staff members to stop the excessive restraint. The excessive use of restraints and the lack of concern for Cornelius’s life draw an eerily similar comparison to that of GeorgeFloyd’s death. Floyd died less than a month after Cornelius Fredericks at the hands of four police officers, one of whom kneeled on Floyd’s neck for over nine minutes despite Floyd’s screams that he could not breathe.”
The lawsuit, which was formally announced Monday afternoon at Marko Law in Detroit, comes just days after Governor Gretchen Whitmer released a statement saying that the Michigan Department of Health and Human Service must take every step necessary to ensure the company no longer provides services for facilities licensed by the department.
The state has already suspended Lakeside’s license which means the facility cannot house any children, but now the department is working to permanently shut down the facility.
An investigation after Fredricks’ death also showed 10 other licensing violations at the facility, including a failure to follow rules related to resident restraint and discipline.
MDHHS announced that “it will eliminate the use of restraints against youth in its care, and review and reform its policies to prevent future tragedies,” according to the statement made by the governor.
On Saturday a small protest took place outside the facility on Oakland as community members demand justice for the teen boy.
Officials with Sequel Youth & Family Services have also released the following statement:
“We cannot comment on pending legal matters. That said, we are deeply saddened by the tragic loss of Cornelius and acted quickly to terminate all staff involved. Additionally, we have removed the former executive director of Lakeside from the organization. We have been in regular contact with law enforcement and state officials to help ensure justice is served and have accelerated the work that was already underway across our organization to move to a restraint-free model of care. We take our obligation to meet the significant behavioral health needs of all our students incredibly seriously and remain focused on our mission of providing the absolute best care and treatment possible for our clients.”
