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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsA Teenager Didn't Do Her Online Schoolwork. So a Judge Sent Her to Juvenile Detention.
A Teenager Didnt Do Her Online Schoolwork. So a Judge Sent Her to Juvenile Detention.
A 15-year-old in Michigan was incarcerated during the coronavirus pandemic after a judge ruled that not completing her schoolwork violated her probation. It just doesnt make any sense, said the girls mother.
by Jodi S. Cohen July 14, 4 a.m. CDT
https://www.propublica.org/article/a-teenager-didnt-do-her-online-schoolwork-so-a-judge-sent-her-to-juvenile-detention?utm_source=pocket-newtab
This story was co-published with the Detroit Free Press and Bridge Magazine.
PONTIAC, Mich. <snip>
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In Michigan, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer issued an executive order in March that temporarily suspended the confinement of juveniles who violate probation unless directed by a court order and encouraged eliminating any form of detention or residential placement unless a young person posed a substantial and immediate safety risk to others. Acting on Whitmers order, which was extended until late May, the Michigan Supreme Court told juvenile court judges to determine which juveniles could be returned home.
Judge Mary Ellen Brennan, the presiding judge of the Oakland County Family Court Division, declined through a court administrator to comment on Graces case. In her ruling, she found Grace guilty on failure to submit to any schoolwork and getting up for school and called Grace a threat to (the) community, citing the assault and theft charges that led to her probation.
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Brennan was unconvinced. Graces probation, she told her, was zero tolerance, for lack of a better term.
<Snip>
Those numbers, obtained by ProPublica from the Oakland County Circuit Court, reflect long-standing racial disparities in the state and countys juvenile justice system. From January 2016 through June 2020, about 4,800 juvenile cases were referred to the Oakland court. Of those, 42% involved Black youth even though only about 15% of the countys youth are Black.
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But officials at the Michigan Protection & Advocacy Service, the state disabilities watchdog organization, said they were especially troubled that a student with special needs one of the most vulnerable populations was punished when students and teachers everywhere couldnt adjust to online learning.
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The ending where a "Childrens Village case coordinator, listening, tried to be encouraging. You are doing very well right now, ... (W)hatever happens, it looks good. You are respectful, you are following the rules.
Then she told them their time was up.
Stay strong, Grace told her mom.
You stay strong, too, her mother replied. I love you.
I love you, too."
I know how I'd feel if I had to stand an active third person review of the interaction between my children and myself with actual time interaction from that observer. Its just so wrong on sooo many levels.
The article is a lot much longer and every paragraph is solid.
malaise
(269,254 posts)marble falls
(57,425 posts)don't spend what they got at a time that because of Covid, crime has mostly gone down.
Either they or their private contractors want to keep getting our tax dollars. They create "no way out" outcomes for the profits involved.
That poor little girl will pay forever and/or your tax dollars will.
Have you heard how many small towns make money off traffic courts to fund city budgets?
malaise
(269,254 posts)because of Covid?
marble falls
(57,425 posts)jimfields33
(16,070 posts)Thanks
Brainfodder
(6,423 posts)marble falls
(57,425 posts)Four paragraphs is a tough mistress.
Brainfodder
(6,423 posts)So sick of the not quite right headlines, they fool the gullible and poorly informed/lazy ones.