A Black girl continued to be detained in a juvenile facility after failing to complete her online coursework.
And on Monday, the 15-year-old promised a judge in Oakland County, Michigan, that she could be obedient moving forward. She just wanted to go home.
“I miss my mom,” the girl, who has only been identified as “Grace” said.
But Oakland County Family Court Division Judge Mary Ellen Brennan, who sent Grace to the Children’s Village detention center in May over the incomplete homework, which was a violation of her probation, denied Grace’s immediate release. It’s in Grace’s best interest, Brennan said, to remain in a treatment program at the juvenile facility where she’s currently being held.
“Give yourself a chance to follow through and finish something,” Brennan told her. ”No question in my mind you miss your mother, terribly; your mother misses you terribly. No question in my mind: The right thing right now is for you guys to be separated until, when I put you back together, I know it’s not going to end in a physical altercation the minute she says: No phone.”
Court caseworkers and representatives from Children’s Village also said Monday that she should be kept there until she’s completed the treatment program.
But both Grace and her mother, Charisse, sobbed as they embraced at the hearing, after they unsuccessfully pleaded for reprieve,
When she didn’t complete her schoolwork, Grace was already on probation over assault and theft charges, after she allegedly bit her mother’s hand during an argument in November and stole a cellphone from a student at her high school last year, according to ProPublica, which co-published its original investigation with Detroit Free Press and Bridge Magazine. Her mother had also called police to her home several times, although she’s among those desperately fighting for Grace’s release now.
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While doing her homework was a condition of staying out of detention, Grace has ADHD, according to ProPublica, and fell behind after schools transitioned to online classes due to the coronavirus pandemic. Her special education teacher told the caseworker that was overseeing her probation that her circumstances were “not out of alignment with most of my other students,” according to ProPublica.
But the probation violation and her past charges led Brennan to say that Grace was a “threat” to her community, according to ProPublica.
Grace’s attorney, Jonathan Biernat, did not immediately respond to a VICE News request for comment. He had initially requested that Brennan review Grace’s case and reconsider her detention, since he believes Grace doesn’t pose any risk. He’s also said Grace’s treatment is inadequate.
