Here’s How to Help Free Grace, a Black Girl Incarcerated for Not Doing Her Homework

Since May, a 15-year-old Black girl, identified only as “Grace,” has been incarcerated in juvenile detention for not completing her online schoolwork. According to The Detroit News, Grace was originally put on probation for assault and theft charges related to a confrontation with her mother in November. Grace has been separated from her mother for more than two months now, amid a pandemic, and Oakland County Judge Mary Ellen Brennan has denied her early release twice. Her next hearing isn’t scheduled until September, Click On Detroit reports, but there are ways you can help her right now.

In Michigan, where Grace is being held at a juvenile detention facility, Governor Gretchen Whitmer issued an executive order in March that temporarily suspended the confinement of juveniles who violate probation unless a young person posed a “substantial and immediate safety risk to others.” During the sentencing, as ProPublica reports, Brennan said that Grace hadn’t “fulfilled the expectation with regard to school performance” and that she knew that she had been “on thin ice.” Citing the original charges that led to her probation, Brennan also called Grace a “threat to (the) community.”

As Essence reports, Brennan has framed Grace’s detention as a good thing, telling the teen, “The right thing is for your and your mom to be separated for right now.”

Grace reportedly responded by telling the judge that she wanted to go home and asserting, I can control myself. I can be obedient. She also added: I miss my mom.

Grace’s story has begun to receive widespread attention with various protesters, activists, and celebrities fighting for her release and justice. Some have pointed to the issue of the school to prison pipeline at play, which disproportionately keeps Black and Brown out of schools and in the streets or detention facilities.

According to data collected by the Department of Justice in October 2015, Black youth were more than five times as likely to be detained or committed compared to white youth.

That said, there are still ways to help change the course for Grace and others by taking action now.

Here’s what you can do to help #FreeGrace, according to a post shared by Michigan-based communications activism group GoSociafy.

• Sign petitions
  • Sign the Change.org petition “Stop the School to Prison Pipeline – Free Grace from Incarceration”
  • Sign Advancement Project’s petition here
  • Sign GoSociafy’s petition here

• Make calls and send emails
  • Contact Judge Mary Ellen Brennan to demand that she release Grace from detention immediately and provide her with the support and resources she needs. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays call (248)-858-3183 and on Tuesdays and Thursdays call (248)-858-0355. You can also email her clerks at [email protected] and [email protected].
  • Contact Attorney General Dana Nessel at (517)-335-7622 and [email protected] and Prosecutor Jessica R. Cooper at (248)-858-0656
  • Refer to GoSociafy’s sample scripts for what to say in the post below.

Grace’s mother has been grateful for the support she has seen for her daughter so far. As reported by Click On Detroit, she released this statement:

“While we attempt to untangle the web that now confines my daughter and keeps her away from me, her family and the support that she needs, I want to thank the seemingly endless number of people—including numerous elected officials—who have expressed their concern and offered their support at the rallies. This situation is an emotional challenge, but is also a window into the brokenness that demands and deserves attention and repair as to prevent other children and families from being negatively impacted by a system that is supposed to offer protection and support.”