Michigan Teen Girl Denied Release After Failing to Submit Online Work

A 15-year-old girl was jailed for failing to submit her online work and Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Mary Ellen Brennan denied her release.

Grace was on probation for assaulting her mother in November and was charged with assault and theft charges.

I miss my mom,” Grace said while speaking to the court before Brennan made her decision, “I can control myself. I can be obedient.” However, the judge didn’t show any mercy. “This morning, for you, unfortunately, is going to get worse before it gets better,” she said.

“Give yourself a chance to follow through and finish something,” Brennan told Grace. “The right thing is for you and your mom to be separated for right now.”

There have been protests rallying for the release of the teen girl. “She is 15 years old.” An activist, Cherisie Evans said, “I don’t understand how a 15-year-old with a problem can be locked up. Where is the counseling? Where are the resources?”

The judge explained that Grace wasn’t being jailed because of remote learning, but because she’s an alleged threat to her mother. “She was not detained because she didn’t turn her homework in,” Brennan explained. “She was detained because she was a threat to her mother.”

According to the judge, Grace fought her mother three times and she bit and pulled her hair during one incident.

A ProPublica profile notes Grace was diagnosed with ADHD and attends a majority white school that didn’t give her the resources she needed to successfully complete remote learning, which is a condition of her probation.

“Who can even be a good student right now?” said Ricky Watson Jr., executive director of the National Juvenile Justice Network. “Unless there is an urgent need, I don’t understand why you would be sending a kid to any facility right now and taking them away from their families with all that we are dealing with right now.”