LANSING, Mich. — Michigan's only state-run juvenile psychiatric facility is facing another lawsuit over an October altercation between a 10-year-old boy and 15-year-old girl.

The lawsuit, filed last month by Mollie Bonter on behalf of the girl, alleges staff at Walter Reuther Psychiatric Hospital in Westland allowed the girl into a unit of younger individuals despite knowing that her mental condition caused her to engage in confrontations with other patients.

"Capitalizing on that knowledge, they instigated, encouraged and allowed plaintiff-minor, who was 15-years-old, to engage in a physical altercation with P.V., another patient at Hawthorn, who is just ten-years-old," the complaint said. The state's juvenile psychiatric services usually are housed within the Hawthorn Center, but children have been transferred to Walter Reuther while a new facility is built on the site of the former Hawthorn Center.

Bonter's filing added that the Department of Health and Human Resources review of the incident "concluded that, in particular, one Hawthorn employee, Bria Howell, provoked plaintiff-minor into the physical confrontation with P.V."

The litigation seeks potential further discipline of employees, an order declaring the state's conduct during the incident violated the state constitution and seeks damages of more than $25,000 to compensate the girl for "irreparable emotional harm she suffered, and continues to suffer."

The Department of Health and Human Services in a statement Thursday said it takes very seriously "the health and safety of our patients"

"An investigation involving an incident on Oct. 18, 2023, was completed by the State Hospital Administration and Office of Recipient Rights," department spokeswoman Lynn Sutfin said in a statement. "As a result, one employee was dismissed, one resigned before they could be dismissed, and another was suspended and has returned to work."

The lawsuit comes a couple months after the Farmington mother of the boy injured in the attack sued the state, seeking $100 million based on allegations that staff members were reckless and negligent in allowing the attack.

That suit alleged the boy had been receiving psychiatric treatment for about a month when another patient chased him and stomped him on his head for several seconds. Video of the attack shows an employee opening the door separating the two and, just minutes before the attack, the video also showed employees stomping on the boy's fingers as he stuck them under a locked door.

The video showed the boy, after the attack, trying to pull himself up but instead falling to the ground.

The boy's lawsuit alleges he was nine at the time; the girl's lawsuit alleges he was 10.

The Hawthorn Center was also sued last year by employees and families of children housed there in connection with an unannounced active shooter drill that left them traumatized.

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