At ClickonDetroit.com, the website of Local News 4, Karen Drew has this update (one in a series of reports) on a whistleblower who called out the prison-like conditions experienced by children at on a Michigan psychiatric facility:
āA teacher who exposed what children were going through inside a state-run hospital said she is experiencing harassment for speaking out.
She spoke out to protect the children. They were patients at Hawthorn Center in Northville Township who were moved to the Walter P. Reuther Psychiatric Hospital in Westland in June 2023.
Christal Bonner worked for the state for eight years as a special education teacher at the stateās only child psychiatric hospital. In 2023, she reached out to Local 4 with concerns about how the children were treated inside the Walter Reuther. At the time, Bonner said the windows were covered and children were not allowed outside for fresh air for months.
āThey have forgotten itās a health care facility, not a correctional facility,ā she said at the time.
Bonner quit her job a few weeks ago because of how she was treated. She said after she spoke with Local 4, managers came after her with conduct violations — one after another — and just two weeks after the 2023 interview aired, she had her first investigatory conference. . . .Ā
She said not enough has changed and that Hawthorn is still run like a prison.
State Sen. Michael Webber is also concerned about the Hawthorn Center.
āWhistleblowers internally, they have contacted our office to tell their story of whatās really going on in there, and itās given us a better picture,ā Webber said. āBut I think the concern is every time we try to get them to testify in a committee or this or that, it gets shut down because, I think fear of retaliatory measures.ā
Itās not the first time heās expressed concerns about the Hawthorn Center. Earlier this year, he pushed for state hearings.”
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