Worker’s compensation is a process to compensate an employee for workplace injuries. The “redemption” is a settlement of claims between the employer and the employee. It is a tax-free award of funds. Attorney Steven Stilman will represent the Hawthorn Staff Class Members in the process, filing the proper paperwork and ensuring that each claim is processed properly. Once we have final approval of the settlement agreement from the Court, the class members will need to complete some basic paperwork about themselves and Attorney Stilman will work with the State to file the claims. We anticipate that the worker’s compensation redemptions will be complete and the funds distributed in early 2025. In the unlikely event that the worker’s compensation claims are not accepted, then each class member will receive their award as a direct payment that will be subject to taxes through a form 1099.

The answer depends on a number of factors. If a Staff Class Member decides not to participate in the Forensic (Trauma) Assessment, then they will receive $5,000 total–$1,000 paid on a form 1099 and subject to taxes, and $4,000 paid through a worker’s compensation redemption and not subject to taxes. If the individual decides to participate in the Forensic Assessment, then the award could be far larger, but will depend on 1) how many people participate in the Forensic Assessment and 2) what the impact of the trauma was on that individual.

The Forensic Assessment process is an online questionnaire with approximately 140 questions that we believe will take each person about 90 minutes to complete. It is entirely confidential and only used for the purposes of evaluating the level of trauma that individual experienced from the December 21, 2022, “active shooter drill.” The assessment will ask five open questions and the rest are short-answer or multiple-choice style questions. It is administered by a team of forensic psychology experts at Boston College. They will score each individual’s assessment on a scale of 1 to 100, and that score will be provided to the Special Master. The Special Master will add up all the scores received, and divide that total number into the pool of funds set aside to compensate the Staff and Employee Class Members. This will yield a per-point dollar value. Each class member will then receive an award that is the product of multiplying their assessment score times the value of a single point. A link to the Forensic Assessment instrument will be provided after the opt-out deadline (April 23, 2024).

If an individual believes that their award allocation is unfair, they will have an opportunity after learning of their award value to submit an appeal to the Special Master and explain why they believe that their award is not fair.