I recently read this article and my heart broke. Was this woman in the wrong? Given the fact that her father lived in the district and was paying taxes, why go to the extent of prosecuting and sending her to jail? It seems a bit extreme especially for a woman who is trying to get her children out of troubled neighborhood.
We talk alot about creating opportunities for yourself and taking charge of your destiny, but in this context it seemed to say "Stay in your neighborhood and try, but don't leech on me." Not only are the kids sent to one of the worst public schools in the state, but the mother who was training to become a teacher's assistant risks losing any and all possibility of realizing her dream. Anyone have an opinion on this?
http://gawker.com/5743399/mom-convicted-of-felony…
An Ohio mother's attempt to provide her daughters with a better education has landed her behind bars.
Kelley Williams-Bolar was convicted of lying about her residency to get her daughters into a better school district.
"It's overwhelming. I'm exhausted," she said. "I did this for them, so there it is. I did this for them."
Williams-Bolar decided four years ago to send her daughters to a highly ranked school in neighboring Copley-Fairlawn School District.
But it wasn't her Akron district of residence, so her children were ineligible to attend school there, even though her father lived within the district's boundaries.
The school district accused Williams-Bolar of lying about her address, falsifying records and, when confronted, having her father file false court papers to get around the system.
Williams-Bolar said she did it to keep her children safe and that she lived part-time with her dad.
"When my home got broken into, I felt it was my duty to do something else," Williams-Bolar said.
While her children are no longer attending schools in the Copley-Fairlawn District, school officials said she was cheating because her daughters received a quality education without paying taxes to fund it.
"Those dollars need to stay home with our students," school district officials said.
Alan Shore would have been all over this. She had a bad lawyer.
I know plenty of people who have done this back when I lived in Florida; never knew it was such a big deal. But then again, Akron sucks.
What a shame, because this is a common practice. I wouldn't be surprised if the school district she put the kids in is predominantly white and the parents complained.
Yeah, this is completely racist. I read this at work and said the same thing. Sue the school district, get Sharpton down there. The kids father, whom the kids spent half their time with, lives in the district.
If they were awesome at baseball/football this is completely legit in Texas...possibly basketball.
This just adds to my disillusionment. What was really gained by all this? There is a big difference between what is legal/illegal and what is right and wrong.....and this is very wrong.
A pox upon them and their families
HER father lived their, not the kid's father.
I feel horrible and I absolutely commend this mom, but there are reasons that this can't happen. Otherwise why can't every kid from Chicago go to New Trier? You may argue that they should be allowed to, but that's a seperate argument. The system is currently set up so that your children go to the school that you're paying into. This is why small apartments in nice school districts often go to poor, but good families.
We had a few kids in my high school who actually lived in the neighboring district. The parents paid an out of district tuition and their kids received a good education, under the current system that is how this works.
Her father pays school taxes. The kids stay with him a chunk of the time. It's cause the kids are black.
It isnt like I am a bleeding heart liberal either. This is racist.
I would have done the same thing were I this woman.
I went to the town of Copley and Fairlawns website and looked at the demographics of the school district. Made some calculations. Blacks make up 9.2% of the entire school age population. This over estimates since Copley didn't have precise age break down numbers. Age 5-20, black = roughly 445. Very few black kids, I am sure some grades are almost all white.
If this was a white girl no one would have noticed or cared.
Before I decide on my opinion, i want one question answered....How black? Wesley Snipes or Ludacris black?
I 100% support poor minorities breaking the law to get their kids educated. It only benefits all of us in the long run. This weak sauce, passive aggressive racism we have in this country is retarded. Let this woman educate her children, let them go to college and become role models.
Education is the single fastest way to ending a cycle of crime an poverty. You think black kids would be selling crack if they knew they could make 60k a year with a comfy office job? Hopelessness breeds extremism. Lack of jobs and equality is also a creator of terrorism.
Virgins and paradise in heaven is pretty wonderful when you are starving and have no rights. Think of how desperate you have to be to light yourself on fire. It's happening in the ME right now.
I know a minority woman at work raising a son who is bullied for his interest in math and science -- she has to pay a large additional expense to educate her son in a school where he won't be physically harassed for his interests. AND she's got to deal with ordinary white racism on top of that.
I know that a lot of people think that minorities have it made in PC-AA America. But: would you actually want all the downside of being a minority just for whatever upside you get from AA, etc?
Honestly, this is just further proof of the bullshit that our country allows without considering the ramifications. No Child Left Behind my ass.... I'd argue that you have more serious problems on your hand than the school fucking up here.
You have a parent who wants their children to get a good education in order to improve their lives and is not doing anything that is beyond reproach. I'm going to take this a step further and even say that the kids wanted a good education as well because of the fact that their mother was a Teacher's Assistant and could understand what the value of it was. Lets take this even one step further, and bring up the tax argument. As long as I'm paying taxes into the school system, if I want to see my tax dollars at work (which they aren't, but that's another arguement as the money that should be going to my school district is going to pay for schools in far worse districts), then I should be allowed to let someone I have a provable relationship to attend those schools, otherwise don't have me pay into the education system if I can't find a use for it. if I want to put my grandchildren through my district's school system, then let me by using my tax dollars to fund their education.
The problem is that this is endemic of the failures with the education system itself. If you have a kid who lives in a school district that is god awful and has both the drive and desire to learn and parents who support that, then let the kids attend a different school that will nurture this. I would gladly let a kid from Newark who had the desire to learn and get ahead in life attend classes in the school system where I grew up if it gave them a shot at improving their odds of improving their situation. I'd rather give that kid a shot at getting out and moving upward than see another child end up a lost soul that gets thrown into the same bullshit that keeps the cycle of hell going forward.
Hell, I look at Camden, one of the worst school systems in the US, and you know what part of the problem is. Part of the problem is that all of the money funneling into those districts does not end up funding the education for those that want to learn. I don't care where you are, but if you have someone that wants to learn and put every single obsticle in their way instead of trying to spot them and help them, then you just send another kid to the gulag for life. For as much as I rail on the education system, the teacher's union and education funding, at the end of the day, we're not talking statistics. We're talking about kids being held hostage by a broken system.
This woman found a way out for her kids by using her father's residency in a good town to get her kids out of Akron's schools and she's being penalized for it? The longer you keep a broken system going, the more it hurts more people than it harms.
Anyways, enough ranting... The school is being racist and I would have no qualms with watching them get sued for this.
PC is just passive aggressive racism. We imprison large amounts of black males for all kinds of minor infractions. Our reward for this is massive penal system costs. We decided a long time ago that slaves were going to stay in this country. I think it is high time we start fixing the problem.
Every black kid, living in a poor neighborhood who will be the first person to go to college from their family should get a free ride through school. Mandatory C+ to maintain funding. End the war on drugs and take those police and put them in the ghetto and bad schools. Mandatory school uniforms so kids are getting shot for air jordans. Sex education in schools so we reduce the prevalence of single mothers in the black community. Drug testing for welfare and a limit to the child benefits on social programs.
Problem would be fixed in a generation.
I think you might be on to something here. I'd probably extend it to 1st generation ghetto college kids, so if you have more than one sibling in a family that wants to go to school and work hard, they're not excluded. I wonder how hard it would be to put together private funding for something like this (because the gov't would just fuck it up).
I bet the ACLU steps in and gets her a decent lawyer for the future.
I was thinking about this myself. Small scale would be pretty easy. Large scale would be tough. I think it would work best if it was kept on a cell basis, as in small groups in each city, slightly adjusting it to local markets.
This is bullshit. My parents were divorced before I could walk and I went to the school district where my father lived even though I only lived with him on weekends. (Friday through Sunday). Clearly there is more going on here than whatever non-sense excuse the School Board gave (read: racism)
I will echo the thoughts of many and add this is 100% racism. This is why poverty is perpetuated in minority communities. Lack of education. Your uncle, dad, cousin are all gangbangers, the chance you become a gang banger is pretty high. Lack of education. But this women didn't want that for her child, she wanted a better life and what does she get for that jail? Makes no sense I can't understand this at all. This same school board said she lied and falsified records to get her child into this school, there is no way you can tell me she is the only one.
As a minority who lives in a predominately white school district graduating class of 360, 20 or so were black; 3 or 4 paid extra money just to attend school there because they didn't want to go to school in the ghetto.
Hopefully she gets a good lawyer, cause this is some shit.
I don't have any problem with the school district finding out who is sending their kids to school in the wrong district. I'm 100% fine with that. But they should have acted with some discretion and not prosecuted the woman for trying to better her children's life. The rule of law is paramount in a functioning society, but so is grace.
Eddie, Ant
Education funding towards this would work. I haven't figured out all the details yet (This coming from a guy who still can't understand the education formula under the Abbot District System) but using state funding might be an option. My only concern with that idea is what will happen to the education cartel? You know they will want their slice of the pie to do this, or will make a huge deal about this because the arguement will be made that it diverts education money away from their districts to help fund this program.
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