A Michigan teen who spent weeks in a juvenile detention facility amid the coronavirus pandemic because she failed to turn in her homework was released on Friday after an appeals court overruled her initial sentence. The 15-year-old, known by the pseudonym Grace, was released to her mother at around 5 p.m. after the Michigan Court of Appeals ordered her release from a facility in Pontiac, The Detroit News reports. “They just want to go home...She will get to sleep in her own bed tonight for the first time in weeks,” Jonathan Biernat, a lawyer for the girl, was quoted as saying. The teen’s detention—at the height of a highly contagious pandemic—sparked local protests and widespread outrage. She was placed in the facility in May after a family court judge deemed her a “threat to the community” because she had failed to turn in assignments when her school began using remote learning. The judge equated the missing homework with a probation violation, noting that the teen was on probation for assault and theft charges.
