A Michigan judge sent a 15-year-old girl to juvenile detention for violating her trial period by not completing her online schoolwork during the corona virus lock down, this has prompted protests all around the girl’s school and the court in Michigan for her release.
The African-American teenager has reportedly been detained since mid-May.
Several thousands of students gathered outside her school and the court to show their support for the girl who they are referring to as “Grace”.
On Thursday, the state’s supreme court said it would review her case.
Following interviews with Grace’s mother, the news site described how the teenager had attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and had already been struggling with behavioral issues.
She was sent on probation in mid-April via a zoom juvenile court hearing after facing an assault and theft charge last year. The list of terms set during the probation required her to do her schoolwork.
At a mid-May hearing at the Oakland County Family Court Division to decide whether Grace had violated her probation, Judge Mary Ellen Brennan found the girl “guilty on failure to submit to any schoolwork and getting up for school” and called Grace a “threat to the community” because of the previous charges against her, ProPublica reports. Judge Brennan has so far not commented publicly on the ruling.
On Thursday, the teachers and students from Groves High School, in the Detroit suburb of Beverly Hills, came out to stand in her support at a rally. and thousands of people have signed online petitions claiming for her release.
“A lot of people were behind on their work this semester, no one had motivation to do anything because the teachers weren’t teaching and we were all online. I know so many people that didn’t do their homework,” 18-year-old student Prudence Canter said.
