KALAMAZOO, MI (WKZO AM/FM) — A center caring for teenage boys with behavioral issues and family trauma is now reporting a number of new COVID-19 cases.
39 students and 9 staff members at Kalamazoo’s Lakeside Academy have tested positive for coronavirus according to the organization.
Last Wednesday 16-year-old student Cornelius Frederick went into cardiac arrest and became unresponsive after staff restrained him for throwing a sandwich. Public safety officers and paramedics were able to revive him, but he ultimately died from complications at Bronson Methodist Hospital on Friday.
The facility on Oakland Drive is currently being investigated by the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety and Michigan Department of Health and Human Services over the incident.
Lakeside Academy board chairperson Jeff Palmer told MLive that in the past few weeks employees have called out sick after testing positive for COVID-19, and that three students were quarantined at the facility’s health center after they reported symptoms.
Now the number of students testing positive has exceeded the health center’s ability to quarantine them in the space.
Palmer says that following the student’s cardiac arrest the academy began to test students for the virus, with campus-wide testing held on Monday and Tuesday.
Frederick’s aunt Tenia Goshay confirmed to MLive that her nephew had tested positive to COVID-19 prior to passing away.
Neighbors of the facility reported “riot-like” disturbances on Friday after a fight broke out and multiple students fled into the surrounding area. Lakeside Academy officials report that an estimated 25-28 students ran away from the property, and all but one have since been accounted for.
“After informing the Lakeside Academy students about their fellow student’s passing and their likely transfer to other facilities on Friday, May 1, there was unrest on campus and the police did have to intervene. There were also a number of students who left campus without permission,” said Lakeside Academy in a written statement.
State officials are requiring that students be re-housed away from the facility as an investigation continues into whether it can keep its operating license.
Palmer says that as of Thursday this week only 60 students will remain on campus, as social service workers remove the teens to other locations.
Social workers will be provided with personal protective equipment and will take health precautions while working with the re-housed students.
MDHHS says that the placement process for students with COVID-19 will not be influenced by their diagnosis.
