(Photo by Heiko Becker/picture alliance via Getty Images)
A field trip to learn more about the legal system ended with a student in handcuffs and a jail uniform. Now, the Detroit judge responsible is doubling down on his decision. Judge Kenneth King recently told a local outlet that the 16-year-old girl involved dozed off inside his courtroom. Additionally, he commented on her alleged “attitude.”
According to WXYZ, the nonprofit The Greening of Detroit took their students on a field trip to the courthouse to watch a real trial and meet a judge. The trip was part of a three-week program that included kayaking and watching birds.
Before the trial began, Judge King reportedly noticed the 16-year-old falling asleep. He warned her that she’d be “put…in the back” if she fell asleep in his courtroom “one more time.” The Detroit judge alleges the teen gave him an “attitude.”
In response, he ordered the girl to put on a jail uniform, which he provided, and sit in lock up. A video shared by multiple media outlets shows the teen in a blue prisoner uniform with her hands cuffed as the judge rehashed what happened.
“Then, I tried to wake you up and you’re like you don’t care. I don’t care either; I have no problem ’cause I’m gonna go to sleep tonight while you’re sitting in the juvenile detention facility,” King said to the teen in the clip.
Though the 36th District Court judge later released the teen, he first had the other students vote on whether he should send her to a juvenile facility.
“The thing about the juvenile detention facility is a lot of the people that are there are not just bad kids. You have a lot of mentally ill kids there. The last time I was there, I had a kid who was actually sticking a spoon up their rectum and spreading feces on the wall,” Judge King told the teen in the courtroom.
Speaking to 7 News Detroit, Judge King explained that it wasn’t the falling asleep that bothered him but the child’s response to his warning.
“It wasn’t so much, in fact, that she had fallen asleep because I have attorneys that fall asleep sometimes, so that’s not too big of a deal. It was her whole attitude and her whole disposition that disturbed me,” the Detroit judge said. “I wanted to get through to her, show how serious this is and how you are to conduct yourself inside of a courtroom.”
The Detroit judge added that his response to the incident was not the norm. However, he claimed that he felt “compelled” to demand she be put in handcuffs and change into a jail uniform because he “didn’t like the child’s attitude.” Furthermore, Judge King claimed he hadn’t “been disrespected like that in a very long time.”
As for whether he actually planned to jail the teen, Judge Kenneth King said: “Probably not.” However, he disagrees with critics calling his actions “heavy-handed.”
“…Because I’ll do whatever it need to be done to reach these kids and make sure that they don’t end up in front of me,” he added.
Meanwhile, the nonprofit traveling with the students released a statement confirming they’ve spoken to the girl’s parents. Chairperson Marissa Ebersole Wood said the girl involved was “traumatized by the judge’s unnecessary disciplinary treatment and scolding.”
Still, the Detroit judge is unfazed by his actions. His intention was for the moment to “look and feel very real to her,” regardless of if he planned to jail her. “That was my own version of ‘Scared Straight,” he added.
