Judge threatens teenager on school trip with prison sentence

A 15-year-old girl who took a field trip to a Detroit court ended up handcuffed and wearing a prison jumpsuit and threatened with jail time by a judge who deemed her disrespectful. The teen was participating in a three-week program run by Greening of Detroit, a nonprofit that also took the children on field trips, including kayaking and bird watching, WXYZ reports. On Tuesday, the teen apparently dozed off in the courtroom while the judge was addressing the group. “If you fall asleep in my courtroom one more time, I'm taking you to the back, got it,” Judge Kenneth King told the girl. He later accused her of “disrespect.” Detroit Free Press reports.

A video of the incident shows the teen, who had apparently been taken away, later being led back into the courtroom by court employees — wearing a green jumpsuit and handcuffs. The judge said he was tempted to put her in jail to teach her a lesson, and then held a sort of “hearing” where a public defender “represented” the teen and the other kids in the group voted on whether the judge should send her to juvenile hall or let her go. He ultimately let her go, though he insists to WXYZ that he “probably” could have actually sent her to jail if he wanted to. The nonprofit says the teen was “traumatized” by the encounter, but the judge stands by his decision: “That was my own version of Scared Straight.” (More stories from Detroit.)