Photo: Family of Cornelius Frederick
Michigan authorities will ban the use of restraint measures in youth facilities after they proved fatal for Cornelius Frederick last year, NBC News reported.
Frederick, 16, was a foster child at Lakeside Academy following the death of his mother. Video of the incident showed he had thrown a sandwich at another child on April 29. Frederick was then forced to the ground by a staff member and held down by seven men who were Lakeside employees as they put their weight on his legs and torso. He was held in that position for more than 10 minutes.
When the staff members released Frederick, his body was limp. He died in a hospital two days later. His death was ruled a homicide.
Prosecutors charged Zachary Raul Solis, 28, and Michael Joshua Mosley, 47, with involuntary manslaughter and second-degree child abuse. A nurse, Heather Newton McLogan, 48, was also charged with involuntary manslaughter and second-degree child abuse, for failing to call for assistance in a timely manner. Authorities said McLogan did not call for paramedics to assist for 12 minutes after the restraint had ended.
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Officials believe Frederick’s death was preventable and part of the blame lies with the for-profit management of some facilities like Lakeside, which was run by Sequel Youth and Family Services. Michigan not only closed the Lakeside facility in June, they severed all ties with Sequel in 2020 – as did California and Washington. The corporation, however, still runs facilities and programs for vulnerable youth, foster children, and children with disabilities in 19 states.
Sequel has claimed that restraint are a measure of last resort and were due to abandon the practice in 2019, a year before Frederick died.
But, Meghan Folkerson, who was Frederick’s former caseworker told NBC News she saw otherwise. Frederick had been restrained 10 times prior to his death and the restraint measures used were painful.
“It became kind of a power struggle,” she said. “You know, ‘You’re going to respect me,’ or ‘You’re going to comply.’”
“Unfortunately, if you had asked a majority of our staff six months prior, we probably could have told you that this was going to happen,” Folkerson continued.
After Frederick’s died, Michigan restricted emergency restraints in all group homes, formed a task force and worked with providers to develop and train staff on new de-escalation techniques.
Michigan plans to phase out restraints completely by 2022.