15 year old African-American, Grace, of Oakland County, Michigan, has spent OVER A MONTH in juvenile detention for "failure to complete online school assignments during Covid19."

Let me say that again. Judge Mary Ellen Brennan sent her to JAIL for not doing her homework or "getting up for 'school.'"

"A report released last month, which found inadequate legal representation for juveniles in Michigan, noted that research has shown that disproportionate numbers of youth of color are incarcerated in Michigan overall."

"Black youth in the state are incarcerated more than four times as often as their white peers, according to an analysis of federal government data by The Sentencing Project, a nonprofit that addresses racial disparities in the criminal justice system."

“They are more likely to be arrested, less likely to be offered any kind of diversion, more likely to be removed out of the home and placed in some sort of confinement situation.”

Failure to complete homework assignments IS NOT a criminal act. Furthermore, traumatizing a child by putting them in juvi will not foster a positive academic affect, nor their esteem toward school/ homework.

While detained, Grace has received "packets of material," but has not received any teaching or instruction. This is oxymoronic - to incarcerate a teenager for not engaging in schoolwork, but then taking away any opportunity for education.

We MUST stop criminalizing normal teenage behavior. If a white teenager was ever held in juvenile detention for failure to complete homework assignments, this nation would metaphorically take up arms against that court system. 

We MUST do the same for Grace. 

PLEASE SIGN & SHARE this petition to give grace and FREE Grace. She deserves justice. She deserves peace. She deserves to go home to her mom. 

Grace's young, black life MATTERS. 

#GiveGraceFREEGrace    #BLM