He started asking the nurses questions and found that the ward was divided over the girl’s case, and those divisions fell along racial lines. According to Paul, the teen had made remarks perceived as threatening toward a white staff member—the Black staff thought that was bullshit. A white staff member had placed the girl in the restraints for far longer than allowed by hospital guidelines and “it seemed there was no plan to end them,” he told me. “This was a commonly heard complaint, that Black patients were secluded more quickly and for longer periods than whites.”
