- Three Teens graduated from the Ingham County Weapons Court on Wednesday.
- The graduation comes a year after the program started.
- Watch video above for me.
Things are finally starting to look up for 18 year old Andrea Ali. It all comes after the teen found herself in some trouble about a year ago.
“My charge was for a knife that was .5 over the legal limit size but it was found on school grounds in my car,” Ali said.
A troubling experience that Ali was able to Turn into a positive one, when she became one of 3 teens to graduate from the Ingham county weapons court on Wednesday.
“Weapons Court is a specialty court that I had designed for this court and its consists of juveniles found with illegal weapons and they go through a very rigorous program,” said 30th Circuit Court Judge Rosemarie Aquilina.
Aquilina started the program about a year ago and currently it has about 10 teens in it, who must complete tasks such as finishing school, community service and courses on conflict resolution. She says it could take up to two year to complete.
It’s all a collaborative effort, that Aquilina said involved the prosecutor’s office, law enforcement, non profit organizations and even parents.
“The parents have to comply with my orders as well, which makes the child successful because the parents have to rethink on how they could do their part to prevent their kids from getting in trouble,” Aquilina said.
By the end of it all, the teens would be presented with a second chance.
“At the beginning of the program, they have a 5 year felony and by the end of the of it, they are just given a 90 day misdemeanor,” Aquilina said.
