By Sharon Coolidge
Enquirer staff writer

Trey Shepard didn't get good grades as a junior at Harmony Carter School in Roselawn, but he went to school, where he liked solving math problems and playing basketball.

That all stopped on Feb. 18, when Cincinnati police arrested the 16-year-old in connection with two abductions and robberies.

Locked up in the Hamilton County Justice Center, Shepard hasn't gotten any schooling, and his mother says that is unconstitutional.

Shawanda Lake sued Hamilton County Sheriff Simon Leis and Cincinnati Public Schools, alleging they are violating the civil rights of her son and every other juvenile jailed as an adult because the Justice Center doesn't offer school to teens. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court.

Juveniles jailed as adults in Hamilton County also can't work toward a high school equivalency diploma. The jail offers such a program for adult inmates, she said.

"Trey wants to go to school now," Lake said. "He knows without a high school diploma or GED he has no chance in the world. He's African-American, so that's one strike, then with no education, that's two strikes."

Law not specific

Ohio law says that anyone who wants a public education is entitled to it until age 22. But the law does not specifically address what happens if a child is held in detention.

Mark Soler, president of the Youth Law Center, a public interest law firm in Washington, D.C., that works for juvenile justice reform, said locked-up kids deserve an education.

"It's good policy to have educational opportunities for children in detention," he said. "You don't want kids having their education cut short because they have gotten into trouble."

The kids most likely will get of jail eventually, he said.

"The surest way to guarantee that they will have problems, either in finding a job or getting involved in criminal activity, is to prevent them from finishing their education."

When Shepard's case was moved from juvenile court to adult court, he was moved from the juvenile jail to the Hamilton County Justice Center. Once he was in the adult jail, Lake says, she got the run-around when she asked how her son would continue his education.

Surprised and appalled

Lake said jail officials told her they had no school programs for teens, and GED classes available to adults couldn't also be provided to juveniles because adults and children are kept separate for safety reasons. Lake said that public school officials told her they couldn't help because Shepard wasn't enrolled in the district.

"I was appalled," Lake said. "I was like: 'Wait a minute, you mean to tell me the jail is housing these children with no education opportunities?' "

Eight teens are jailed in the county justice center: three 16-year-olds and five 17-year-olds. Of those, Courtney Jones, 17, of Lincoln Heights, who is accused of killing a 40-year-old man last year and also of assaulting a guard at the jail, has been jailed the longest. He's been behind bars for eight months.

A spokeswoman for Cincinnati Public Schools said the district is aware of the lawsuit and looking into the complaint. Attorneys for the district have not filed a response.

Leis said he does not comment on pending lawsuits.

Trey Shepard remains in the Hamilton County jail in lieu of $800,000 bond. He was indicted April 21 on charges of aggravated robbery and kidnapping. According to prosecutors, Shepard abducted two men in February, armed with a pellet gun.

In both cases Shepard demanded the men's ATM cards, then drove them around, forcing them to take money out of their accounts. In one case, Shepard is accused of shooting the victim in the neck, according to prosecutors.

Shepard is scheduled to appear before Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge Melba Marsh Thursday.

Lake fears her son will be convicted and sent to prison.

She knows the lawsuit is unlikely to get her son schooling while he is in the Hamilton County jail, but she says she and her son want to help other children in his situation.

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E-mail scoolidge@enquirer.com