LIBERTY — A former township resident pleaded with officials Monday to consider dropping the charges against the children at the center of Thursday’s Belmont Pines Hospital riot.

Karl Stennett, who came from Cuyahoga Falls to be at Monday’s regular meeting, told officials that the children aged 11, 13 and 14 — as well as a 15-year-old who reportedly assaulted several staff members after becoming agitated — shouldn’t be criminally charged because if Belmont Pines couldn’t control a behavioral problem related to that age group, they should not be involved with mental health.

“I called the prosecutor and talked to the CEO of Belmont Pines. I don’t think that’s what we need to be doing,” Stennett said. “We need to be handling this as a behavioral problem, rather than a criminal one.”

Police Chief Toby Meloro explained to Stennett that while he didn’t like how things were either, the facility houses some children that weren’t mentally healthy, pointing out the 15-year-old’s unprovoked violence.

“The one 15-year-old that you’re talking about has really beat(en) up people for no reason. I understand that there might be issues. We’ll leave that up to the prosecutor to decide what to do,” Meloro said. “But there has to be consequences. You can’t continue to put them in the facility and treat some kids, and some kids have to be afraid of other kids.

“I’m not saying it’s the best solution, but there has to be consequences of your actions,” he added.

Meloro said he believes prosecutors have decided not to charge the 11-year-old, but wasn’t sure. As for the 15-year-old, Meloro said he has caused the department “a lot of problems,” adding that while it was the same individual that Belmont Pines has tried to remove from the facility, there was nowhere for him to go.

“I think you’ve seen that with mental health all over the place, so whether he has issues or not, they have to protect the other children in that hospital, and you have to protect staff,” Meloro said.

Meloro said trustees have met with Belmont Pines representatives multiple times and the township wants to work with them — but there’s only so much they can do.

Stennett noted that the two biggest issues with the facility’s operation is that they don’t segregate their population, mixing individuals with suicidal ideations with ones there for violent outbursts and the spectrum in between.

Trustee Arnie Clebone, who said he’s had conversations with the Ohio Department of Health about the facility, asked Stennett what guidelines Belmont Pines had to follow, as he was told they didn’t have any.

“I agree with you, it was the kid causing the problem, but he shouldn’t have been there, or he should have been better controlled, better supervised,” Clebone said. “So how do we (fix the problem)? From what I was able to garner when I called them, they told me there was really nothing (they could do).”

Stennett said he didn’t know if there was a mandate dictating how individuals in the facility should be broken up, but if people choose to work in mental health, they should learn how to do it — considering the age of Belmont Pines.

Stennett pointed to various media platform comments noting the lack of training Belmont Pines staff was alleged to have, too.

“They’re not really trained to handle the slew of people and individuals that they’re dealing with, and some may actually antagonize the individual as well,” he said. “There were stories dating back to the 90s of people who were in Belmont Pines and how they were treated.”

Stennett admitted to Trustee Devon Stanley that he spent time in Belmont Pines at some point during his time in Liberty, saying he felt he came out with more problems than when he arrived.

“What I can say is back then — and I doubt it’s changed any — the moment they could give you a shot of medicine, because there was a medicine they had back then, I don’t exactly know what it’s supposed to do, but it made you super loopy,” Stennett said. “So anytime someone was having a problem, they’d inject them.”

Meloro said that practice isn’t permitted anymore, and while they did do it back then, Eric Kennedy, CEO of Belmont Pines Hospital, told Meloro they don’t do it anymore.

Stennett questioned why Thursday night’s incident turned into a “full-blown riot” that required several police departments — Ohio State Highway Patrol, Hubbard Township, Hubbard City and Girard — to be dispatched, just knowing the ages of the children.

“You have to understand, and this is what we explain to people, how the call comes out is how we respond. We probably didn’t need all of those agencies there, but if a call comes out riot conditions, we’re going to call in the army,” Meloro said. “That’s how we’re trained to respond. For that situation, we actually stood in the lobby for a bit as they calmed the children down, so we didn’t kick doors down or anything.”

Stennett said Belmont Pines should have been able to handle it without calling in a riot-level response, which Meloro blamed on a staffing issue at the facility.

Meloro said he spoke to Kennedy, who also said it shouldn’t have had to reach that extreme, and the facility is doing more with their staff to train them.