Continued turmoil and a new assault at the state-run Sununu Youth Services Center prompted a top New Hampshire lawmaker on Tuesday to call for the removal of Health and Human Services Commissioner Lori Weaver and Marie Noonan, the director of the Division for Children, Youth and Families.
“They cannot be trusted and failed as leaders,” said Sen. Victoria Sullivan, who led an investigation of illegal restraints inside the facility which houses children who have been ordered held by the state judicial system. She said she will ask the Executive Council to remove Weaver and Noonan from their jobs.
Sullivan’s comments came during a public meeting Tuesday between lawmakers and the New Hampshire Office of the Child Advocate, an independent watchdog that has raised a series of concerns about conditions inside the Sununu Center in recent months. New details emerged this week that indicate the center remains under distress, including: fresh accounts of an assault that hospitalized a 13-year-old resident on Friday; the resignation of the Sununu Center’s clinical director over ethical concerns; and a move by the New Hampshire Attorney General’s office to assume some control over the Office of the Child Advocate.
Ethical concerns prompt resignation
Dr. Samantha Morin has worked at the Sununu Center since 2021 under a contract with Dartmouth Health. As clinical director, she is part of the center’s administrative team and oversees services to residents, who range between the ages of 13 and 17 and often have behavioral health challenges.
Lawmakers and the Office of the Child Advocate said Tuesday that Morin had recommended the teenager who assaulted another underage resident Friday be accompanied by a “clinical coach” to manage his anger and aggression.
But a single staff member was with the two residents alone when they began fighting and was unable to separate them or call for help, according to a person who has worked in juvenile justice for 20 years and watched a video of the incident.
Morin, who was not in the facility when the assault occurred, tendered her resignation but the timing was unclear Tuesday. Sullivan, the senator who led the legislative investigation, and Cassandra Sanchez, who oversees the Office of the Child Advocate, said Tuesday that Morin resigned for ethical concerns. She is due to leave in mid-August, Sanchez said.
Morin could not be reached for comment. The Department of Health and Human Services referred questions to Morin’s employer, Dartmouth Health, which did not respond.
The future and independence of Child Advocate is uncertain
The Office of the Child Advocate was the first to report earlier this year that children at the Sununu Center were being illegally restrained and kept in isolation. That prompted an investigation by the Attorney General's office, the Disability Rights Center in New Hampshire, and state lawmakers.
The Office of the Child Advocate is on track to be without a leader after Friday, even as the agency continues to investigate abuse allegations at the facility and is contemplating litigation against the state.
Gov. Kelly Ayotte did not reappoint Sanchez, who has held the job since 2022, for a second term. Ayotte’s choice to replace her, Diana Fenton, withdrew from consideration in March after several people questioned her ability to be fair and unbiased. Ayotte has not announced a nominee to replace Sanchez, who must leave this week.
While the position is vacant, state law says an assistant child advocate “shall serve as the acting child advocate and be entitled to the compensation, privileges, and powers of the child advocate.”
Sanchez said Tuesday that the Attorney General’s office has said it will not elevate an assistant child advocate to the position. She said her team was told to bring issues to the Attorney General’s office in her absence.
Sanchez said she has advised her team against doing that and to instead make the results of its investigation public before giving it to the Attorney General's office. That’s in part because the Attorney General’s office refuted Sanchez’s account of conditions inside the Sununu Center without consulting with staff who investigated complaints.
“I am very concerned,” Sanchez said. “This is very active, and could this be intentional so that the [child advocate's] office is unable to move forward with a [investigative] report?”
Neither the Attorney General’s office nor Ayotte’s spokesperson returned a message Tuesday.
Assault that hospitalized a resident was more severe than reported
The video of the July 17 assault captured an attack that was so severe that one person who saw it feared the child could have died. NHPR is not identifying that person, who has worked in juvenile justice in the state for 20 years, because they fear retaliation from state officials for speaking out.
The person said an older and larger youth threw a younger resident against a wall, choked him in a headlock, and flipped him upside down onto his stomach. He continued choking the child as he held his head back, the person said.
The Office of the Child Advocate said a report of the incident said the child was turning purple and may have lost consciousness.
State law requires the Department of Health and Human Services to notify the child advocate’s office “immediately” of any child who dies or suffers a “serious injury” while in the department’s care.
Sanchez said she was notified two days after the incident.
Jake Leon, spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services, said state law strictly limits what information it can disclose in juvenile justice matters, including medical conditions or treatment.
Leon said the health department has taken several steps to improve operations, culture, and safety at the Sununu Center.
It has mandated overtime and stepped up recruitment to mitigate staff shortages, he said. Staff are getting refresher training on trauma-informed care, restraints, and de-escalation. The department is pursuing body cameras for staff and is seeking a consultant to help improve operations and workforce development, Leon said.