A family court judge on Tuesday refused to alter the sentence of a Michigan teenager who was sentenced to juvenile detention after she failed to complete her online schoolwork.
Judge Mary Ellen Brennan of the Oakland County Family Court Division said on Tuesday that Children’s Village, a Detroit area juvenile detention center, is “exactly” where the student is “supposed to be,” according to ProPublica.
The judge claimed that the 15-year-old student, identified as Grace, is “blooming there, but there is more work to be done.”
Grace had been placed on probation in the past after allegedly getting into a fight with her mother and stealing at school, and has now spent more than two months in the juvenile detention center for violating her probation by not completing her schoolwork.
Brennan claimed during Monday’s hearing that Grace “was not detained because she didn’t turn her homework in. She was detained because I found her to be a threat of harm to her mother based on everything I knew.”
Grace had claimed that her attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, had caused her to become unmotivated and overwhelmed by the online learning put in place during the coronavirus pandemic. Her incarceration sparked protests in Michigan, with hundreds of students in the Detroit area sharing “Free Grace” signs and messages outside their schools.
Grace said at the hearing on Monday: “I believe placement in my home with the same, consistent therapy that I was getting beforehand, and love and support that will always be around me, will be a benefit for myself, my mom, my family, and my community."
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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