BIRMINGHAM, Mich. (FOX 2) - Protesters gathered Thursday in support of a 15-year-old girl from Metro Detroit who was sent to juvenile detention at the end of the school year for not completing her online school assignments during the COVID-19 pandemic.
ProPublica reported Tuesday that the 15-year-old from Beverly Hills attends Groves High School in Birmingham and had her probation revoked by a judge in May after repeated violations of her probation.
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Protesters demand teen arrested for not doing homework to be freed in Birmingham
The people attending the caravan and rally for justice put on by Michigan Liberation say this isn't just about getting Grace out and finding a solution to her situation. They say it's broader systemic racial inequities that potentially permeate every exchange, every reprimand, every judicial decision affecting minors in the justice system.
A little after 5 p.m. on Thursday, emergency motions were filed asking the judge to reconsider her decision to send Grace to Children's Village. No decision has been made.
A group of people who were unsettled by this showed up outside Groves to demand something be done to get the teenager more fair treatment.
"I graduated with a lot of children on probation, kids on probation that went to Michigan that didn't do their school work and went to Michigan. The difference between them and Grace is that they were white, they were rich and they could afford expensive lawyers." Jacqueline Hentschel said.
She wasn't the only one who said race played a factor.
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"If this were a white girl living in a big house in Birmingham, this would not have happened," Ruth Rothenberg said. "This girl should have never put in Children's Village, this is absolutely outrageous. Most of the children who had to move to online learning struggled with it, let alone a child with a diagnosis of ADHD. It's absolutely unbelievable."
FOX 2 has reached out to attorneys for the girl, identified by ProPublica only as Grace, but have not had the information confirmed.
The people attending the caravan and rally for justice put on by Michigan Liberation say this isn't just about getting Grace out and finding a solution to her situation. They say it's broader systemic racial inequities that potentially permeate every exchange, every reprimand, every judicial decision affecting minors in the justice system.
"We demand the prosecutor seek alternative measures other than locking our kids and to cease the school to prison pipeline," Earl Burton said.
A petition online for Grace's release has garnered thousands of signatures and lawmakers from the county level on up are jumping on board to call for a review of the case.
"For a child to be incarcerated under such circumstances, it calls for further questioning," said Democratic state Representative Krya Bolden.