They call her “Grace” and she is 15 years old, black, lives in Michigan, USA, and was sent to a juvenile prison for not doing her homework.
Although the case became known this week through a joint investigation between Propublica and Detroit Free PressIt all started last May, when a Michigan judge decided to send the child to a detention center for failing to do her homework.
The judge then considered that the teenager had violated the previous terms of her probation, which forced her to do her school work.
But, according to the family, “Grace” suffers from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), making it difficult for her to focus on online classes after the coronavirus pandemic forced her school to close.
The fact that the minor is black and that the state justice system has ignored her ADHD and sent her to a juvenile prison instead of offering her help has generated fierce protests in the United States.
On Thursday, hundreds of hundreds of students and activists marched in Detroit with placards bearing the slogans “Free Grace” and “Black Lives Matter“(Black lives matter, in English) in front of the teenager’s school and marched to the state courthouse.
Meanwhile, thousands of people have signed online petitions calling for his release.
Following widespread rejection of the case, the state Supreme Court announced Thursday that it would review the sentence.
What happened?
According to the report of ProPublica and Detroit Free PressThe teenager has been dealing with behavioral problems and emotional disorders as a result of her ADHD for years.
The minor had previously been jailed for an alleged fight with the mother and for being caught trying to steal the cell phone of a schoolmate.
But she was paroled in mid-April after a juvenile court hearing.
One of the terms of his release was for Grace to fulfill her school obligations and complete assignments.
But according to ProPublicaThe teen’s parole began coinciding with the first days that her school started classes remotely.
The mother told the media that the minor was quickly overwhelmed by the new modality and not having the in-person support of her teachers and classmates, and stopped fulfilling her duties.
What did the justice say?
In May, the young woman was brought before the Oakland County Family Court to assess whether she had violated her probation.
The judge Mary Ellen Brennan ruled that the teenager was “guilty” for failing to do her homework and for being absent from class.
“I told him that I was walking on a thin layer of ice and told him that I was going to abide by the conditions of parole,” Brennan said during the hearing.
The judge considered Grace a “threat to the community” and ordered that she be sent to the county juvenile detention center, called Children’s Village.
According ProPublica, must remain there until a hearing to review the case on September 8.
The mother of the minor, identified in the report as Charisse, assures that she has had limited family visits to the prison due to the pandemic and that, on the occasions that she has been there, she has experienced “deep pain” when seeing her daughter in shackles electronic on the ankle and wrist.
“For me and our culture, seeing that was like a knife stuck in my stomach. That’s our story, being chained. And she didn’t deserve it,” he said.
What have been the reactions?
Several students who participated in Thursday’s protest viewed the decision as over-justice, while others said the minor’s race may have influenced her conviction.
“I know if Grace were a 15-year-old white girl she wouldn’t be in juvenile detention right now,” one of the participants in the protests told the local station. WDIV.
Meanwhile, Geoff Wickersham, a professor of social studies, questioned that justice had not taken into account the problems caused by the pandemic in the educational system.
“It didn’t seem like the judge or social worker knew how the ratings and due dates were structured, and things during the pandemic shutdown in the spring. I think this is a great injustice,” he told Reuters.
The judge’s ruling came despite an executive order issued in March by Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, calling for the detention of minors to be suspended to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus.
In accordance with these regulations, the authorities should only send minors to prison if they were considered “an immediate and substantial security risk for others.”
Various US media have reported in recent months on the problems that the country’s students have faced with the new modality of online classes.
Reports indicate that students have faced obstacles ranging from a lack of adequate internet speed to a lack of educational resources at home, a lack of parental supervision and an adequate learning environment.
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