Psych calls jumped after shooting

Number of kids held under Baker Act spiked in days after Douglas massacre

FORT LAUDERDALE — On the day after the Parkland school shooting, 177 children across Florida were brought to hospitals by police or other authorities to undergo emergency mental health exams — an unusually high number that kept climbing in the days that followed.

On Feb. 27, about two weeks after the Feb. 14 massacre, 195 children across Florida were taken for psychiatric observation under the state’s Baker Act. The number is the highest single daily total in nearly five years, according to figures obtained by the South Florida Sun Sentinel.

The data suggest that not only were children upset and fearful after the highly publicized shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High, but schools and other professionals were more vigilant in hospitalizing children who might pose a threat to others — such as school shooter Nikolas Cruz, experts said.

School and mental health professionals never sent Cruz for emergency psychiatric treatment despite their longstanding knowledge of his troubled mental health. Had he ever been committed for long-term treatment, he would have been banned from buying guns under federal law.

Now Florida’s Baker Act — and whether officials should have used it to get intensive psychiatric help for Cruz — will be a key focus of a commission set up by the Florida Legislature to investigate system failures that led to the massacre of 17 Stoneman Douglas students and teachers.

In a state without easy access to mental health care, the Baker Act has become the foremost way to get help for those in distress. It allows for people who are too sick to care for themselves — or at risk of killing themselves or others — to be held for up to 72 hours for a psychiatric exam and possibly be

committed by a judge for longer treatment.

Between 2011 and 2016, the number of children hospitalized under the act rose by nearly 50 percent, far higher than the growth in the state’s population, according to the University of South Florida, which tracks Baker Acts.

Among the reasons cited for the increase: cyberbullying, limited mental health services, a shift away from arresting juveniles, and mass shootings, according to a 2017 Florida Department of Children and Families report.

The Parkland shooting, at least in the initial weeks, drove the numbers even higher, according to the university’s data, which is preliminary.

Typically this school year, an average of 118 children a day underwent involuntary mental exams in Florida. The day after the Parkland shooting, there were at least 177 Baker Acts of children statewide; on Feb. 20, some 188. The 195 seen on Feb. 27 appears to be the peak, the university’s numbers show.

In March the figures dropped and were more in line with the daily average before the shooting, as fears dissipated and children coped better.

“There was a true increase in anxiety, stress and depression leading people to feel like they were unsafe,” said Jill EhrenreichMay, a University of Miami associate professor in child psychology. In addition, school professionals naturally wanted “to make sure nobody slipped through the cracks again.”

In the two weeks after the shooting, Broward schools sent 34 children to hospitals for psychiatric exams, district data shows. That’s more than twice the number they sent in all of January.

Most of the 34 students were considered suicidal, but seven were described as homicidal.

Because of privacy laws, no details were provided on the nature of those cases or the ages of the children.

“The shooting itself is what triggered this spike,” said Antoine Hickman, executive director of the Broward Public Schools’ Exceptional Student Learning Support Division.

Why wasn’t Cruz, who had an emotional behavioral disorder, a chaotic home life and other complex developmental disabilities, ever hospitalized by authorities?

“That’s the million-dollar question. It seems like he

should have been,” said Ehrenreich-May.

Predicting whether a child will act on an impulse to kill himself or someone else is very difficult, research shows.

The Baker Act has limitations — designed to protect people’s freedom and liberties — which, in this case, failed Cruz. Under the law, authorities must have a reason to believe that someone is likely to seriously hurt himself or others in the near future.

Records show Cruz was able to fend off attempts to hospitalize him by simply denying that he had any intention of killing himself or anyone else. For example, in a 2013 incident at his Parkland home, Nikolas, then 13, threw a chair, yelled, called his mother a “useless bitch,” and barricaded himself in his room, according to a police report. A sheriff ’s deputy went so far as to handcuff him and put him in the back of a cruiser while assessing the situation. A counselor from Henderson Behavioral Health arrived, his mother gave Cruz medication, and he calmed down. He had no injuries and there were no guns in his room.

The counselor told the deputy that because Cruz’s behavior was under control, and he “did not make any threats of harm to him or others, a Baker Act was not needed,” according to the police report.

A few years later, authorities had another opportunity but failed to act.

In late September 2016, Cruz allegedly told a classmate he had drunk gasoline the prior week, had cut his arms, and had a gun at home and was thinking of using it, according to mental health records.

The school resource officer at Stoneman Douglas, Broward Sheriff’s Deputy Scot Peterson — later publicly castigated for failing to rush into the freshman building to try and stop Cruz’s murderous attack — wanted then to hospitalize Cruz. Two school counselors agreed. But it wasn’t done, for reasons that remain unclear.

Instead, a counselor from Henderson questioned Nikolas, He denied drinking gas and said he owned only a pellet gun. He admitted scratching his arm with a pencil sharpener blade over a breakup with a girl, but said he was no longer lonely

and had no desire to kill himself or anyone else.

The counselor drew up a “safety plan” for Cruz that included coping strategies in times of stress, such as reading magazines, watching TV, fishing and spending time with pets. His mother was told to lock up sharp objects and alcohol. He was not hospitalized.

The following day, Sept. 29, 2016, a school guidance counselor asked Henderson to again evaluate Cruz because he was talking of buying a gun now that he was 18. The counselor feared his mom would allow him to get a state ID so he could make the purchase. On that day, the school resource officer did not believe Cruz met the criteria to be hospitalized, the assessment notes show.

The school instead created another “safety plan” that involved taking Nikolas’ backpack away from him, noting that he had written the word “kill” in a notebook because he was mad at his mom, the records show.

Another Henderson counselor visited the home, and Cruz explained: “I was angry then, but I wouldn’t hurt my mom.”

The counselor wrote: “Currently there are no guns at the home. At this time client does not meet criteria for [Baker Act].”

When someone denies any intent to die or kill others “it makes it very, very hard,” to hospitalize them under the Baker Act “unless there is some kind of evidence to the contrary,” said consultant Martha Lenderman, one of Florida's leading experts on the law.

“You end up with a hesaid-she-said thing sometimes.”

Now, after the shooting, the district is scrambling to hire dozens of additional therapists to help children over the long term. It has a crisis assistance center set up at Pine Trails Park in Parkland for students, parents and staff who need grief counseling, referrals to community resources and support groups.

Cruz sits in a solitary cell in the Broward Jail, where he has been on suicide watch.

“There was a true increase in anxiety, stress and depression leading people to feel like they were unsafe.” Jill Ehrenreich-May, UM professor