15-Year-Old Girl Sent To Juvenile Detention For Failing To Do Online Schoolwork

A Black girl from Michigan was sent to a juvenile detention center after she allegedly failed to complete her online schoolwork.

The 15-year-old, which was only identified as Grace, has been incarcerated at the Children's Village juvenile detention center since May. According to Complex, Grace, who has ADHD, reportedly had difficulty in completing her schoolwork after the COVID-19 pandemic made her school to switch to online classes.

Grace was previously placed on probation after a fight between her and her mother and petty theft on school property was reported. However, Judge Mary Ellen Brennan decided to send the teen to the detention center not because of her behavior, but because she failed to meet the standards of her online class.

The Oakland County Family Court Division presiding judge ruled that Grace was “guilty of failure to submit to any schoolwork and getting up for school.” Brennan also described Grace as a “threat to (the) community,” said Fox News.

“She hasn't fulfilled the expectation with regard to school performance. I told her she was on thin ice and I told her that I was going to hold her to the letter, to the order, of the probation,” added the network, citing Brennan's statement.

Grace's caseworker, Rachel Giroux, filed a violation of probation and requested for the teen to be detained “before confirming” if she was indeed wasn't complying with the school's academic requirements. ProPublica, who published a detailed article on Grace's case, said Giroux then sent an email to the teen's teacher, Katherine Tarpeh. The teacher replied that Grace was “not out of alignment with most of my other students.”

“Let me be clear that this is no one's fault because we did not see this unprecedented global pandemic coming,” Tarpeh wrote. She also said Grace has a “strong desire to do well” and that she is “trying to get to the other side of a steep learning curve mountain and we have a plan for her to get there.”

Grace is not scheduled to be released from the detention center any time soon despite Michigan Governor Gretchen Witmer signing an executive order to temporarily suspend juvenile confinement. The order also touched on eliminating any form of detention unless they are “substantial and immediate safety risk to others,” said Fox News.

“It just doesn't make any sense. Every day I go to bed thinking, and wake up thinking, 'How is this a better situation for her?'” Grace's mother, “Charisse,” told ProPublica.