A field trip to learn more about the legal system ended with a student handcuffed and wearing a prison uniform. Now, Detroit judgment The person in charge is continuing to carry out his decision. Judge Kenneth King recently told a local outlet that the 16-year-old girl involved had fallen asleep inside his courtroom. He also commented on her alleged “attitude.”
Here’s what happened in court
According to WXYZThe Greening of Detroit nonprofit took its students on a courthouse tour to see a real trial and meet a judge. The trip was part of a three-week program that included kayaking and bird watching.
Before the trial began, Judge King reportedly noticed the 16-year-old girl dozing off. He warned her that she would be “taken… to the back” if she fell asleep in his courtroom “again.” The Detroit judge accused the teen of having “an attitude” toward him.
In response, he ordered the girl to put on a prison uniform he provided and sit in her cell. A video shared by multiple media outlets shows the girl in a blue prison uniform with her hands cuffed as the judge recounts what happened.
“Then I tried to wake you up and you said you didn’t care. I don’t care; I don’t have a problem because I’m going to sleep tonight while you sit in juvenile detention,” King told the teen in the clip.
Although the 36th District Court judge later released the young girl, he first asked the other students to vote on whether to send the girl to a juvenile facility.
“The thing about juvenile detention is that a lot of the people there are not just bad kids. You have a lot of mentally ill kids there. The last time I was there, I saw a kid actually put a spoon in his rectum and spread feces on the wall,” Judge King told the teen in the courtroom.
What Detroit judge said about handcuffing a student
Speaking to 7 News Detroit, Judge King explained that what concerned him was not the child falling asleep, but the child’s reaction to his warning.
“It wasn’t really that she fell asleep because I have attorneys who sometimes fall asleep, so it wasn’t that big of a deal. It was her demeanor and her personality that bothered me,” the Detroit judge said. “I wanted to convince her, show her how serious this is and how you have to conduct yourself in the courtroom.”
The Detroit judge added that his response to the incident was not normal. However, he stated that he felt “compelled” to order the girl to be handcuffed and changed into a prison uniform because he “did not like the attitude of the child.” Furthermore, Judge King stated that he had “not been treated with such disrespect in a very long time.”
As for whether he has Actually If the judge plans to jail the teenager, Judge Kenneth King said: “Probably not.” However, he disagreed with critics who called his actions “heavy-handed”.
“…Because I will do whatever it takes to get to these kids and make sure they don’t show up in front of me,” he added.
Meanwhile, the non-profit organization that accompanied the students issued a statement confirming it had spoken to the girl’s parents. President Marissa Ebersole Wood said the girl involved was “traumatized by the judge’s unnecessary disciplinary treatment and scolding.”
The Detroit judge, however, was undeterred by his actions. His intention at this point was to “look and feel very real to her,” regardless of whether he intended to put her in jail. “It’s my own version of ‘Scared Straight,’” he added.
A Detroit judge had a sleeping teenage girl dressed in a prison uniform and handcuffed during a field trip to his courtroom:
“I felt compelled to do it because I didn’t like the child’s attitude.” https://t.co/hAS5M15QNr photo.twitter.com/2eWLUcuTcL
— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) August 14, 2024
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