READ HERE: NORTHVILLE TOWNSHIP, Mich. – Two class action lawsuits have been filed against the Hawthorn Center over an unannounced “active shooter” drill that terrified staff and patients and led to a massive police response.

The center held the drill at 10:30 a.m. on Dec. 21, 2022. The Hawthorn Center is a state-run children’s psychiatric hospital managed by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.

People inside the center called 911. They were terrified, and employees working at the center said it was chaos inside the building. They truly believed there was an armed intruder among them. Police hadn’t been notified that the center was running a drill.

Now, attorneys for some of those people claim that the facility terrorized both its staff and its vulnerable patients during the drill. They want the state held accountable for what the staff and patients went through.

We spoke to two former Hawthorn Center employees, who spoke anonymously due to fear of retaliation — they were present at the time of the drill and described the aftermath.