Sent to Jail for Caring About Her Kids' Future - 2 views
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An African-American single mother of two from Akron, Ohio, was sentenced to two concurrent five-year prison sentences for a felony conviction of "falsifying documents" so that her two daughters could attend public school in the mostly white Copley Township outside Akron. The five-year sentences were suspended, but Kelley Williams-Bolar was ordered to spend 10 days in prison and perform 80 hours of community service afterward for the "crime" of sending her children to the Copley schools by using her the address of her father, a resident of Copley. Williams-Bolar and her father Edward Williams were also charged with grand theft for "stealing" $30,500, the cost of "out of district" tuition for the two children for two years. The jury couldn't agree that the two engaged in theft, but they did convict Williams-Bolar on the fraud charge. Judge Patricia Cosgrove reduced the sentence, but insisted that Williams-Bolar serve some time so as not to "demean the seriousness" of the "crime." But what exactly is the crime?
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The idea that parents are willing to sacrifice anything for their children is not a new concept. Although this mother may have gone about trying to get her children a better education in the wrong way she had the best of intentions. I think the real crime is that this mother was forced into breaking the law in order to provide her children with a good education. The inconsistency and inequality of our education system is the real crime here. - ...1 more comment...
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Having lived just outside of Tallahassee for 20 years and also living in an area with sub-par standards in education, I can honestly say that I have known people who have committed this federal offense. Perhaps that calls into question my bias, but I believe that concurrent five-year prison sentences is unacceptable(as seen by the outcome). It almost seems that the judge was attempting to make an example of the offender, but regardless the law is the law. That means that the real question is why was she forced to send her children to another school? I think it would be important for the district of the school that the defendant lived in to start a series of reviews to see if they can possibly improve their educational system. Books, facilities, food, and teachers are all relevant to the equation of school improvement. That is the lesson we have been drawing from the entire course and I think that cases like this where people are willing to risk felonies in order to give their child a better education reinforce the idea that the school districts need to constantly review themselves. -
I find the fact that this woman's actions are considered criminal to be deplorable. But, at the same time I can understand why the current structure would fail if everyone took their kids and put them where they wished. The answer, in my eyes, is far from criminalizing these actions. We should closer analyze the motivations of these actions with an aim to create a system that reduces the need for this behavior. Perhaps we need to broker a contract between the state and local governments so that school funding is not so drastically unequal from district to district.
