MI judge denies release of 15 y.o. Black girl jailed for not doing online schoolwork

[soothsayer]

Link to tweet

?s=21

A Michigan judge denies the release of a 15-year-old Black girl who has been jailed since mid-May for not doing her online schoolwork.

[LakeArenal]

1. Yikes. It gets worse and worse.

Seemingly unimaginable in 2020.

[Nevilledog]

2. That's insane.

[blaze]

3. But the article that the tweet links to says

"At Monday's hearing, Brennan stressed that police had responded to incidents between the mother and the daughter three times, and that Grace's detainment was the result of that, the Detroit News reported.

"She was not detained because she didn't turn her homework in," Brennan said. "She was detained because she was a threat to her mother."

[Fullduplexxx]

10. Yea she soundsa little out of control. she attacked her mother to the point where her

mother locked herself In her car and was laying on the horn along with calling out for help. That headline though

[Lancero]

15. That was what precipitated her being put in the initial home-based program and probation.

Where she was making progress - However, one afternoon nap and a missed homework assignment are apparently a severe probation violation that makes her a extreme threat to the public and required her to be put into Juvie.

She certainly needs help, but well... The article puts in best.

"There's a lot of students like Grace. They're put into the criminal justice system as children instead of getting the help they really need," she said. "Why does mental health and behavioral health treatment have to come at a cost of being held in a detention center?"

[RhodeIslandOne]

4. No one had to include black in the title

That was expected.

[LonePirate]

5. Gov. Whitmer should step in and issue a release/pardon/commute.

[gratuitous]

6. Grace has done more time in jail than Roger Stone

Welcome to Trump's America. Thanks again, Senate Repubicans.

[no_hypocrisy]

7. I'm a substitute teacher for middle school kids in a very diverse population.

Any given day, I could give out $20 to every student who did homework and brought it to class and I wouldn't have to pay $100 for the entire day. Jail? Really? More like "Get real!"

As for being a threat to her mother, again, I relate. The kids don't like authority of any kind. You tell them to sit down, they won't. They do what they want in the class. You can only have leverage if you call in the vice principal, but not for the obvious (suspension). If they get in trouble, their parents won't get them a new phone and they HAVE TO have that.

I don't have any wisdom on how to get kids that age to subordinate to authority for their own good.

[Fullduplexxx]

11. Right that's why it sounds like it's not really about homework

[RANDYWILDMAN]

8. Home School is stressful

My heart goes out to everybody who helps with homeschooling.

Child/parent relationships during the Trump administration are hard.

[BGBD]

9. that's a pretty click-baity title

When you read the article it's a lot different than that. The girl was detained because of multiple calls to police over the past year that apparently included assaults on her mother and stealing a cell phone out of a locker at school. She's also not in jail, but in a residential treatment program at a juvenile facility, and her lawyer is admitting that she is making progress in the program.

From reading the article it is pretty clear that she was going to find herself in more trouble that she could handle if she kept going on the route she was on.

It's also clear from the article that she was not detained over not doing her homework. The judge says that her progress in the program is good and he wants her to finish it.

Isn't this the exact type of program that we talk about needing? A program to divert kids who are getting into trouble before they do something that actually will ruin their lives?

[Lancero]

14. When you read the article it's a lot different than that.

After her caseworker learned she had fallen back asleep one day and failed to do her homework, a hearing was held in May and the judge decided she had violated the terms of her probation.

ProPublica noted that Grace's teacher had told the caseworker in an email that Grace was "not out of alignment with most of my other students," and how she was coping was "no one's fault because we did not see this unprecedented global pandemic coming."

She was getting the help she needed, and making progress - Outside of Juvie. But whelp, one missed homework assignment and she now gets to do the same program in a cell.

For those who read the article, the last part makes that point rather clear.

"There's a lot of students like Grace. They're put into the criminal justice system as children instead of getting the help they really need," she said. "Why does mental health and behavioral health treatment have to come at a cost of being held in a detention center?"

[Eugene]

12. The homework was part of a probation deal.

The girl's ADHD condition and COVID-19 distance learning further complicated the matter.

This is about more than homework, but authorities can try harder to make alternatives work.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53481539

[WhiskeyGrinder]

13. Making homework a probation condition is the definition of "school-to-prison pipeline."