this is some dumb shit to get arrested for #2

http://www.bvonmoney.com/2011/01/25/mother-jailed-for-sending-kids-to-the-wrong-school/

Kelly Williams-Bolar: Mother Jailed for Sending Kids to the Wrong School District
By Boyce Watkins, PhD on Jan 25th 2011 1:36AM

When I read about the case of Kelly Williams-Bolar, I find myself confused. The 40-year-old Ohio mother of two is being sent to jail for using her father's address to send her two daughters to a school in a better district. Williams-Bolar lives in a housing project in Akron, Ohio, and had sent her children to school in Copley Township using her father's address.

Williams-Bolar's father, Edward Williams, is also being charged with fourth-degree grand theft for stealing more than $30,000 in school services for the two girls. Williams-Bolar herself will spend 10 days in jail and be placed on probation. Also, the judge in the case, Patricia Cosgrove, made it clear that she was using Williams-Bolar to set an example for other parents who consider doing the same thing. The judge went out of her way to tell the woman that she gave her jail time "so that others who think they might defraud the school system perhaps will think twice.''

Besides being a single mom, Williams-Bolar was going to school part time in the hope of getting a job as a teacher. The judge noted that because Williams-Bolar has been convicted of a felony, she will no longer be allowed to teach in the state of Ohio. Therefore, the punishment that she and her girls will face is set to last a lifetime.

The Kelly Williams-Bolar case strikes a chord with quite a few people in the black community for a few reasons. Most directly, a lot of kids can remember their own mothers doing the same thing to try to break the cycle of poverty that so many of us confront as children. Inner-city schools are inadequately funded, so many parents have no choice when it comes to finding ways to get their kids a good education. Some of the children I mentor attended poorly performing inner-city schools and even though they did what they were told, most of them were unprepared for college after graduation and had never even done any homework.

One has to also wonder why there is a $30,000 funding differential between the school that Williams-Bolar sent her children to and the one that was in her district. Logic seems to imply that if funding were roughly proportionate between the two districts, it would simply be awash, where one school's spending could be compensated by another school's savings. But this is not the case in a world where far too many people of color are locked in to the horrible schools in their districts, as our elected officials continue to ignore the problem. Many of these schools don't have books or quality teachers, while the kids in the suburbs are given everything they need to be successful. The idea that citizens are now being put in jail for attempting to access educational equality is nothing short of being Jim Crow-like in nature.

Black family economic inequality also plays a huge role in this case. It's hard to imagine that the judge would have been compelled to make an example out of Williams-Bolar were she not a poor single mother from the projects. If she were a wealthy woman from the suburbs, she would have been able to afford the kinds of attorneys that keep people out of jail, and she also would not have been forced to break the law to help her girls get access to a good school. This case just stinks to high heaven.

Dr. Martin Luther King reminded us many years ago that a moral man or woman has the right to violate unjust laws. Williams-Bolar's decision to break the law of educational apartheid to give her daughters a better future is no different from those who broke the law to teach slaves how to read. Access to education should be a fundamental American right, but as it stands, being poor has now become a crime, especially if you have the audacity to demand equality.
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Ok we just got shitted on.

 

more like that woman got shitted on. I didn't think they took this so seriously. My mom did it as well. I am not sure if she told or they found out that she was using the wrong address. Any how, they had a social worker investigate it and found that no one would be able to watch over my sister when she was released so they allowed it to happen. This may be a reason for vouchers. I think we should really decide to reanalyze this go to the school in your location. It should be like college. If you got the grades, then you get to go there.

 

I say we all (Im just being philosophical about it) got shitted on because It is sending a message that you people (lower class) should stay in your place (classism) especially you Nig### . How dare you poor white trash and niggers try to get a good education

 

I don't think it was that at all. You got to remember that people pay into these schools. There are black and poor white students paying for that school while that woman's kids are going there for free. That is unfair to those black parents barely struggling to keep their kids in that school along with the poor white student's parents. She was indeed stealing. People do this very often. You got to start getting serious. That's what got my mom to go straight. The county passed harsher laws. She decided to go the legal route and it worked out for her. What troubles me is how this judge did not think in the way to sentence her. What she did was doom the kids to poverty. Although I have to admit the chances were already harsh for the kids.

I can not believe I am saying this because our governor(a republican) is trying to get a voucher system but having it would work to help bring up the kids that have the grades. I think the felony is too harsh. Now both parents are felons in a disastrous economy and we the tax payers are going to be paying for the projects that she lives in and maybe even the projects for her children to live in.

 

This is very simple here. If you break the law then you pay. Its really that simple. YES, it sort of sucks but she lied (speaks to character) and she's had a history of not doing what the rest of us. She puts her family as risk (should get be jailed who will take care of her children) She put her own future and freedom at a risk.

I have to be honest. What was she thinking when she got pregnant with these two children? Man it sucks...it does. My children attend school in one the of the top rated school districts in the nation. Why? Because as a young man I WORKED MY ASS OFF. Why should the same amount of money that is spent on the schools that my children go to be spent on the poor schools. I don't live in the hood, I went to school, I did sew up every chick I could get my cock into. And what that translate to is I get to live in a better area, and provided for my children......so now that I have children I can provide for them. She made some unwise choices....she's shown a history of unwise choices, and in the end the ones who pay the most for her mistakes, are her children.

 

Yea, I didn't go down her history but this is very much correct. People work hard for their stuff. It isn't fair that one gets the same as you do but didn't work as hard as you did.

 

And it sounds cold and callous, but that is reality. I don't think that school boards should be set up by local communities. I believe that the same money spent on my children's school should be spent on other schools...

...HOWEVER,

Until the system is changed she has to abide by the rules. She has already shown a history of NOT doing that. "There but for the grace of God go I".....and understand that, I swear I do.

 

That is why school choice is a GOOD thing

 

Interesting, so what is your take on the 11 year old possibly doing life in prison for shooting his Father's nearly full term pregnant girlfriend in the head while sleep?

 

If it wasn't for people breaking the rules neither of us could vote today, have decent jobs, marry outside our respective races or do much of anything we wanted with our own lives.

People pushing the limits because of social injustice is what incites change. "Doing what you're told" leads to stagnation and defeat.

 

This part is most upsetting:

Besides being a single mom, Williams-Bolar was going to school part time in the hope of getting a job as a teacher. The judge noted that because Williams-Bolar has been convicted of a felony, she will no longer be allowed to teach in the state of Ohio. Therefore, the punishment that she and her girls will face is set to last a lifetime.


I think the punishment is a bit harsh. Around here they have open enrollment so you can actually jump school districts legally. Why should a person be locked into a shitty school district.

 

I think this is some bullshit. I mean really, getting a criminal record for trying to better her childrens lives?

 

I agree. The problem possibly was the over excess of lying. She should at the most gotten a misdemeanor and maybe a 200 fine. It is really a victimless crime.

 

another article about this :

Dr. Boyce: Jailing A Mother For Sending Kids To Wrong School District?

Written by Dr. Boyce Watkins on January 27, 2011 11:47 am Click for More Next Post An Ohio mother of two was sentenced to 10 days in jail and placed on three years probation after sending her kids to a school district in which they did not live. Kelly Williams-Bolar was sentenced by Judge Patricia Cosgrove on Tuesday and will begin serving her sentence immediately.

The jury deliberated for seven hours and the courtroom was packed as the sentence was handed down. She was convicted on two counts of tampering with court records after registering her two girls as living with their father when they actually lived with her. The family lived in the housing projects in Akron, Ohio, and the father’s address was in nearby Copley Township.

Additionally, Williams-Bolar’s father, Edward L. Williams, was charged with a fourth-degree felony of grand theft, in which he and his daughter are charged with defrauding the school system for two years of educational services for their girls. The court determined that sending their children to the wrong school was worth $30,500 in tuition.

When I read about this case, a few thoughts went through my mind. First, it’s clear that the court is trying to make Kelly Williams-Bolar into an example. Even the judge in the case, Patricia Cosgrove, said that her sentence was appropriate ‘’so that others who think they might defraud the school system perhaps will think twice.”

Secondly, it’s interesting how courts find it convenient to make someone into an example when they happen to be poor and black. I’d love to see how they prosecute wealthy white women who commit the same offense. Oh, I forgot: Most wealthy white women don’t have to send their kids to the schools located near the projects.

Third, I’m not sure why the court is treating this law-abiding mom like a thug who ran into a building with a shotgun and robbed the district of $30,000. Instead, they could simply subtract the amount it costs for her kids to go to the second school from the amount that would be spent for them to attend the first one. I’m sure the difference would still be substantial, since American educational apartheid dictates that schools in poorer neighborhoods are of significantly less quality than other schools. The racial divisions within American schools are nothing less than a blatant and consistent human rights violation and should certainly be treated as such.

A final interesting blow by Judge Cosgrove that reflects the experience of marginalized African Americans in the criminal justice system relates to Williams-Bolar’s quest to obtain a teaching degree. The single mother was in school studying to become a teacher so that she could create a better life for her girls. But that won’t happen for her family now, given that the judge has all but shut the door on her chance to fulfill her dream:

”Because of the felony conviction, you will not be allowed to get your teaching degree under Ohio law as it stands today,” the judge said. ”The court’s taking into consideration that is also a punishment that you will have to serve.”

This case is a textbook example of everything that remains racially wrong with America’s educational, economic and criminal justice systems. Let’s start from the top: Had Ms. Williams-Bolar been white, she likely would never have been prosecuted for this crime in the first place (I’d love for them to show me a white woman in that area who’s gone to jail for the same crime). She also is statistically not as likely to be living in a housing project with the need to break an unjust law in order to create a better life for her daughters. Being black is also correlated with the fact that Williams-Bolar likely didn’t have the resources to hire the kinds of attorneys who could get her out of this mess (since the average black family’s wealth is roughly 1/10 that of white families). Finally, economic inequality is impactful here because that’s the reason that Williams-Bolar’s school district likely has fewer resources than the school she chose for her kids. In other words, black people have been historically robbed of our economic opportunities, leading to a two-tiered reality that we are then imprisoned for attempting to alleviate. That, my friends, is American Racism 101.

This case is a textbook example of how racial-inequality created during slavery and Jim Crow continues to cripple our nation to this day. There is no logical reason on earth why this mother of two should be dehumanized by going to jail and be left permanently marginalized from future economic and educational opportunities. Even if you believe in the laws that keep poor kids trapped in underperforming schools, the idea that this woman should be sent to jail for demanding educational access is simply ridiculous.

Dr. Boyce Watkins is a Professor at Syracuse University and founder of the Your Black World Coalition. To have Dr. Boyce articles delivered to your email, please click here.