The School-to-Prison Pipeline Swallows a Black Girl for Not Doing Her Homework
As a pediatric psychiatrist, I see how mental health issues are routinely criminalized in this pernicious cycle
Even in the midst of a pandemic, the courts are finding increasingly novel and cruel ways to criminalize mental health issues. Earlier this month, ProPublica revealed the stunning case of a 15-year-old Black girl with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) who was placed in juvenile detention for not doing her homework. The Michigan teen, who was identified in the story by her middle name, Grace, was on probation for separate assault and theft charges from late 2019. She did not have any further run-ins with the law for months, yet because she struggled to stay on track with school — during the height of the Covid-19 crisis no less — a judge ordered her to be held in detention for the last two months.
Children across the country are struggling to focus in this new Covid-19 socially distanced schooling environment, which only exacerbates existing issues of institutional racism in the schools. Grace is not a threat to her community for struggling to engage in school as the judge intimated. It makes her like so many kids who, like her, say they feel unmotivated and overwhelmed with online learning.
