In the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, a Michigan teen was jailed in juvenile detention for not doing her homework. The news is finally out now that the teen has been officially released following an appeals court ruling from her probation.
According to the reports by the Associated Press, the 15-year-old girl was allowed to continue with her mental health treatment at home by the Oakland Circuit Judge Mary Ellen, who on Tuesday took up a caseworker’s recommendation to arrive at a conclusion and ultimately terminate the case.
Initially, Brennan had refused to release the teen, who was known as ‘Grace’, for privacy reasons but she was finally allowed to return home after an appeals court ruled that it should be done that way on July 31.
According to ProPublica, Grace had allegations of stealing her classmate’s cell phone and assaulting her mother and was since first placed on probation in April.
ProPublica was the one who first reported this incident along with the Detroit Free Press and Bridge Magazine as well.
Moreover, she had to be up-to-date with her schoolwork because it was listed as one of her probation requirements, however, Grace started suffering from ADHD, struggled a lot, and fell behind as her district then switched to online learning. She wasn’t able to cope up at all.
Thus, for violating the conditions of her probation, she got sentenced to detention in May. She was at Children’s Village, which is a suburban Detroit facility, in secure detention since May 14. She later shifted to a treatment program, according to the reports by ProPublica.
In addition to that, the joint ProPublica also reported that there were a few concerns raised regarding systemic racism due to the Black teen’s detention during a pandemic and holding her accountable for schoolwork. There were also concerns raised about the overall juvenile justice system.
