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UPDATE: Akron mom released early from jail in school residency case
By now, I'm sure you've read a million and one blog posts about the Ohio mom who was jailed for having her children illegally registered in a school district in which they didn't live. The saga of Kelley Williams-Bolar made the rounds of the black blogosphere this week, before bubbling to the surface and reaching the mainstream media. It's a cause celebre that's risen to a level of interest not seen online since the case of The Jena Six.Just in case you've been living under a rock all week, here are the basics of the story:
An Ohio woman who was jailed for tampering with records to get her children into a better school district has been released from jail a day early, according to a local newspaper. Kelley Williams-Bolar left the Summit County Jail on Wednesday, having served nine days of her 10-day sentence, the Akron Beacon Journal reported.
Williams-Bolar, a single mother living in subsidized housing in Akron, used her father's address to register her two daughters in the high-achieving suburban Copley-Fairlawn school district. Copley-Fairlawn said the improper registration cost it $30,000 in lost tuition and $6,000 in investigative costs.
The Akron City school district met only four of 26 standards on the latest Ohio Department of Education Report Card and had a 76% graduation rate. Copley-Fairlawn City Schools met 26 of 26 standards and had a 97.5% graduation rate.
Williams-Bolar told CNN affiliate WEWS-TV that she and her children considered her father's house one of their homes. "My primary residence was both places. I stayed at both places," she said in an interview at the Summit County Jail.
Williams-Bolar's father, Edward Williams, told CNN affiliate WJW-TV that the children did live with him, so he believed the family was within the law. He said his daughter's Akron neighborhood – where she lives in government-subsidized housing – isn't safe.
Williams-Bolar, a single mother, works as a teacher's aide at a high school in Akron and is just 12 credits away from earning a teaching degree at the University of Akron, according to the Beacon Journal. Her felony conviction will bar her from being licensed to teach in Ohio.
Summit County Common Pleas Judge Patricia Cosgrove sentenced Williams-Bolar last week to five years in prison, but suspended all but 10 days. Williams-Bolar also must serve 80 hours of community service and will be on probation for three years.
The case has drawn national media attention and outrage, much of it due to its racial undertones: Williams-Bolar is black, while the Copley-Fairlawn schools are predominantly white. Williams-Bolar told CNN affiliate WEWS-TV in Cleveland that she plans to appeal her conviction. The local chapter of the Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network is trying to raise money to fund the appeal, the Beacon Journal reported.
I'm sure I'll catch a bunch of heat for this, but darnit, it needs to be said.
Could we as a community, please, please, please stop defending criminality?
Yes, Williams-Bolar's quest to provide her children with a better education than that of their home school district is laudable. Yes, Williams-Bolar's felony conviction and the subsequent loss of a possible career is tragic. Yes, it's unfair that Williams-Bolar's children can't get as good an education in their home district.
But guess what? When you strip all of that away, the issue remains that a law was broken. Period.
I've heard many people argue that had Kelley Williams-Bolar not been black, there's a good chance the school district (which is 75% white) would have never gone after her. While that may be the case (there's no proof to substantiate it), it still doesn't change the fact that she knowingly violated a law. As a person employed by a school system, if there's anyone who should know better, it would be her. Just because race is involved doesn't make this a racial story.
It's about simple economics. By illegally registering her children outside of their designated school district, she took $30,000 in funding from children whose parents worked equally hard to provide a good education for their kids. Yes, the intent is noble, but it's still illegal. If you broke into my house to steal food to feed your children, your best intentions don't change the fact that you took food out of my children's mouths.
Instead of getting all worked up over stories like this, and signing online petitions, I hope we'll learn a lesson from Jena and respond pro-actively, rather than reactively. Rather than bemoan the unfairness of the system that lead this mother to commit a crime, I hope everyone will channel that energy productively by signing up to be a tutor or mentor to kids in schools like the one Williams-Bolar sought to rescue her kids from. Call your congressman and raise a ruckus about the disparity in educational funding. Do something that will really change things for the entire black community, and other communities that are underserved.
Do something other than sign a lousy e-petition and groveling about a racial aspect to a story that may or may not even be there. We did that with the Jena Six. Based on the trials some of those kids endured once the thousands of marchers and hundreds of bloggers moved on, I'd say we missed the point of that whole expedition.
Yes, this story (which oddly hasn't showed up on the radar of school choice-advocating conservatives yet) illuminates the disparity in the quality of education those in the inner city receive versus their suburban counterparts. It also highlights that public school systems that are funded based on property taxation virtually insure that poor kids will always be a few steps behind. It is truly a shame that Kelley Williams-Bolar had to resort to such means to give her kids a better shot at life. I have great sympathy for her, and sincerely hope that her probation period is shortened.
But it doesn't excuse the fact that she still committed a crime. Sorry. And in the black community, sometimes we are too sympathetic towards "working the system," to the point that defrauding the welfare system, cheating on our taxes and even drug dealing is deemed justifiable because of the horrible inequalities that do exist. What would help more would be organized, consistent, pro-active action, instead of sympathizing with desperation. If the Kelley Williams-Bolar case can inspire us to do this, perhaps her crime will not have been in vain.
Jay Anderson is a freelance writer from Washington, DC, whose work has been featured in the Washington Post and on NPR. When he's not busy talking smack here, he runs the award-winning blog AverageBro.com. Follow him via Twitter @AverageBro.
Comments: (138)
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By: WEW on 1/28/2011 2:40PM
This cannot be serious. Yes it was illegal but so what. The law was keeping her kids from a decent education. I work very hard and still can't afford to live in the area in my city with the best schools. So because I can't afford a million dollar home my kids deserve a crappy education? I was one of the very lucky ones to get my child in a high performing school through the lottery, but if she hadn't got in guess what I would have done the same thing this parent did! The system is screwed up and sets our kids up for failure!
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By: Cinderfella Daeda Daedalus on 1/28/2011 3:20PM
People of the right color and political leanings are running the school system in her neighborhood. Her real crime is not having faith in them..
She should be punished for that.
As a people we need to have *absolute faith* in our government and never question its efforts or, try to as Jay would put it *game the system*.
Lock her up and throw away the key. She's not the right kind of people.
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By: Mwatuanghi on 1/28/2011 3:27PM
While I don't agree with all your points I respect them. The crux of my dislike of this case is how it reveals yet another instance of ignorance. Of course what she did was illegal. But was it or does the act justify the labeling of her as some deceptive "welfare queen" or even the felony? Of course, if you've been conditioned to accept the laws of a country where a documented racial disparity in sentencing exists.
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By: Jennifer on 1/28/2011 3:35PM
he lives here, but not sure how, his house has been in forclosure a zillion times since the early 1990's, he owed over 44,000 in taxes...now what do you say to that?? and it doesn't matter where HE lives, it matters where SHE and her kids lived...and it was not here.....I am not even sure how he is still in his house, he is a frequent flier of the court system, cries discrimination left and right and is being investigated for fraud as well....you people need to learn the facts
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By: Cinderfella Daeda Daedalus on 1/28/2011 3:32PM
Her number one crime is exposing the failure of the school system.
How could this happen.
She has failed her people. As a people we are duty bound to embrace and accept the government, local and federal as if it were our parents, for many of us it is anyway.
For that she needs to be locked up for life.
In reality is a politcal prisoner, just not the type of politcal prisoner you may think.
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By: erica on 1/28/2011 5:05PM
What!?
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By: erica on 1/28/2011 5:06PM
First of all her father lived in that district. She did not give a false address. Secondly, they followed this woman for 2 years to see where she lived. What school does that? Thirdly, this happens all over the country. You all talk about overcrowding in the white schools but what about the overcrowding in inner city schools. She did what she had to do. I would do the same for mine. They should have made her pay what she owed and called it a day. They did not have to put this woman in jail "to set an example". That is what people are outraged about.
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By: Paul on 1/30/2011 7:34PM
a. She did use a false address because she and her children are not domiciled at the address she listed; ergo, she committed fraud.
b.They had to build a case by collecting evidence. We are all entitled to due process, so it is likely the investigators want to gather a preponderance of evidence against the bunco artist.
c. Why do you assume all white schools are some sort of Shang-ri La? Do you think the kids in Methville, Alabama or Cracker County, Arkansas go to Blue Ribbon Schools? The quality of schools is a class-based issue, not a race-based issue.
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By: jeromequigley on 1/28/2011 5:24PM
WAY BRAVO JAY!!! And what ever happened to it takes a village??? Funny how instead of Ms W-B, the women who said she would do ANYTHING FOR HER KIDS, forming parent group's to volunteer and help the school (to make it better, not just complaining to the staff that they stink) and doing the same with the neighborhood. Helping the police (again not just blaming them)to catch the peepz who are making it bad. She picked the easy way out which was "I'll look after my kids and to he** with the other peepz in my community", instead of truely doing ANYTHING to help her kids and in turn all the kids in that area and pitching in to make the school and community BETTER. So much so that other people would be beating a path to move into that community because of the good schools and neighborhood!! Wow just think of it, instead of waiting for some one else to do some thing, she could of actually done something to make a difference. And it shows how much she cared about her community, NOT ONE BIT, yet peepz stick up for her when in turn she did not do anything to stick up for the other kids and peepz in her community?? Wow! how selfish is that??
** oh BTW BRUCE, AL AND THE REST OF THE PEEPZ ON HEAR THAT THINK FOR THEMSELVES, OH GOD DO NOT READ DR W'S NEW ARTICLE ON THIS LADY....HE ACTUALLY IS COMPARING HER WITH ROSA PARKS??? I ABOUT GOT SICK!! HOW COULD ANY ONE TRY AND COMPARE THE HEART AND COURAGE ROSA SHOWED WITH THIS LADY(NOT SAYING THE LADY IS SOME EVIL BEING)! BUT COME ON...ROSA PARKS..I DONT REMEMBER ANY WHERE IN ANY ARTICLE THAT SAID THE SCHOOL TOLD HER "HEY BLACK LADY YOU HAVE TO GET THOSE BLACK KIDS OUT OUR WHITE SCHOOL"?? I just could not believe he actually went there!!!!
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By: Alvin Milton on 1/28/2011 6:01PM
I agree that a law was broken but the long term consequences are far more disastrous than the short term issue.
She wanted her kids in a better school district. As a fledgling educator I'm sure she knew first hand that her children would be dis-serviced by being in a lower performing school district with less funding which means less everything that a child needs.
So now after being in a crummy neighborhood, the spectacle of a conviction on her record, and now her career and future earnings are jeopardized... She definitely can't get out of her neighborhood anytime soon nor is she "allowed" to provide a better education for her children so they can do better or at least be on an equal footing with a child that lives in a higher earning school district.
My stance is yes a law has been broken but where is the justice being done by this law? Who is it protecting and who is it hurting? Lets not ignore that the basis of this issue is HAVEs vs. HAVE NOTs. This law and others like it are nothing but ways to keep people divided and over what... access to education?
She is no bank robber, murderer etc so lets just put this issue in perspective. And while I agree that we can proactively donate time to helping under-served communities and that would be more effective, I think its shortsighted to tell folks don't get all up in arms about it because its not a racial issue. It is a classic case of institutional racism PERIOD.
And yes I am a dad, and no my child is not in an under-served community nor does he go to a low performing school so I'm not as affected as you may think from my comment. I'm more outraged that access to education is still an issue and the application of the law is so blind and damaging overall.
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