The Curious Case of Kelley Williams-Bolar
So you probably have heard about Ms. Willams-Bolar. If not:
AKRON, Ohio – A Summit County woman will spend 10 days in jail after she was found guilty in a school residency case that could set a precedent for Ohio school districts.
Judge Patricia Cosgrove also placed 40-year-old Kelly Williams-Bolar on two years of probation and ordered her to complete 80 hours of community service.
On Saturday, a jury found Williams-Bolar guilty on two counts of tampering with records. She was also facing one count of grand theft, but the judge declared a mistrial on that charge after the jury couldn’t reach a verdict.
…
“I felt that some punishment or deterrent was needed for other individuals who might think to defraud the various school systems,” Cosgrove told NewsChannel5 after the sentencing.
Prosecutors said Williams-Bolar lived in Akron, but falsified enrollment papers in the Copley-Fairlawn School District so her two girls could attend schools for two years.
Prosecutors said the lies cost the district about $30,000. Copley-Fairlawn does not have open enrollment and out-of-district tuition is about $800 per month.
There seems to be myriad responses to this case. Ranging from the impassioned response from Boyce Watkins to the “fraud is fraud” response by Bob Dyer of the Beacon Journal. Titles all over the internet have proclaimed “MOTHER IMPRISONED FOR SENDING KIDS TO WRONG SCHOOL!” implying that the only thing wrong was simply enrolling where she shouldn’t have. Under the current laws of Ohio Ms. Williams-Bolar committed a crime. This can’t be argued. What can be argued is whether the actions by the court are right and appropriate for the defendants situation
My initial reaction to this was outrage. I sat at my computer, heart pounding, eyes tearing, because when you peel all of the layers off of it a woman, who works with special education children and was attending school for her teaching degree is being vilified because she wanted something better for her children. And we can’t possibly ignore the racial aspect of this situation. A poor BLACK woman on public assistance is being jailed for sending her kids to the rich white school. I’m not arguing whether this is how it should be looked at–I’m saying thats how it is looked at. It’s now questionable whether the teaching degree she’s been working towards will be allowed because she now has a felony charge against her. A family’s life is in virtual ruins because of this situation.
And many say she deserves this.
Reading comments from residents of the town where she “stole” the education from say that this is fair. They pay a lot of money for that school. Rules are rules. If you don’t live there you have to pay $800 in order to attend and she did not do so. In black and white terms (no pun intended) this is true. But is anything black and white? Can we truly look at this situation and call it fair? Are we a country that would put a scarlet letter on this woman because of where she sent her kids to school? She didn’t forge $20 bills and buy electronics and diamonds. She didn’t pretend to be a victim of 9/11 and try to claim special funds.
She sent her kids to school.
To judge this simply as a case of fraud is to ignore the surrounding circumstances. Some say that legally speaking “circumstances” doesn’t matter. But if you murder someone they specifically have to figure out if it was a crime of passion, was it self-defense or was it premeditated. Each crime receives wildly different sentences. But the bottom line is that a person is dead. But somehow that’s not black and white. They say she was judged by a jury of her peers. Was it really? Was it a group of poor minorities trying to finally have a chance at the supposed American dream? Were these “peers” people who’s families have tried for generations to rise from the injustice and inequalities that they–literally–had nothing to do with?
Show me these “peers.”
I’m not saying Ms. Williams-Bolar was right. I’m not saying she shouldn’t have to pay what she owes to the local government. I’m saying to make an example of a poor Mother with a family on her first offense is unconscionable. To think this reasonable is to ignore the reality that we live in and the shades of right and wrong that appear in so many offenses.
By the way, America stole a lot of labor from my people. Are we going to get any of that “owed” money anytime soon? No? Didn’t think so.
Elon James White
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Can we extend this conversation and question why the schools in Akron are so bad that she’d risk jail time and fines to send her kids somewhere else? Yes, She committed a crime. BUT the bigger crime is the one the State of Ohio commits against these defenseless children.
Will the same people that advocate punishing her also file civil suit against the State? Probably not.
This case is exactly why school district funds should NOT be provided through property taxes. Every school in each state should have sufficient funding to provide adequate education. One school should NOT be better than another, just because boundaries have been drawn so that rich (whether white or not) pay more for their ‘better’ school, while forcing poor (whether black or not) to go to a less endowed school.
I have no problem with funding schools through property taxes (though they should also be funded through corporate taxes) but I do have a problem with these ridiculous arbitrary school district boundaries. I live in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, in Pittsburgh. The city itself represents one school district, but the various suburbs and burbs just in this county alone have 41 more. 42 separate districts, with all that duplication of administration, purchasing, transportation and so on, for a county with a population of only 1.2 million. And in those 42 separate districts, we have one that’s on the verge of state takeover for its pathetic academic track record, and another that handed out free laptops to every kid in its high school. We have one where only 57% graduate from high school (and only around 40% of minorities do) and one with a 95% graduation rate and a full television production studio in the high school and every student has a free Kindle.
No more should we accept this created fiction, built upon principles underpinned with racism, that just because parents can “afford” (especially in our era of foreclosures) a home in an area with a higher median tax base, their children are worthy of a higher standard of education, better teachers, better books, nicer buildings, more technology. Those dollars should be spread around evenly. Every child deserves equal access to every privilege of money where public education is concerned, whether they live in the neighborhood of $500,000 homes or a public housing project (like Ms. Williams-Bolar’s daughters).
If you dislike that, and you’re rich, pop your kids into a private school. If you dislike that and you’re not rich, you’re probably a victim of this segregated, racist, classist education system yourself.
That’s judgemental, and what you are suggesting is socialism. If you earned a lot of dough (which you may) and paid more to live in a great neighborhood, then it isn’t fair that your taxes are “spread evenly”, soyou can have a shitty or even “normal” school. These people pay high taxes, their school should have what it can afford.
To you I am a “victim” of the system. I But I am actually someone who “thinks”. Why i am paying high taxes and my kids’ school is as shabby as the one in the ghetto areas? It just won’t work.
And they reason the kids are flunking doesn’t have anything to do with not having their own laptops, and more to do with the materialistic values kids emulate from urban media and the lack of emphasis on academics in urban areas.
You seem to be a victim of “envy” instead of letting folks take responsibility for their lives.
just move to a better school district or send your kids to Catholic School… yea you might have to forgo the rims on the new SUV and the trips to Jamaica but you are not also spending your weekend trips to the State Pen because the only thing they taught Tyrone in school was to place a condom on a cucumber
Do tell, what SUV does a mother living in a housing project own? When does a single mother, college student and teacher’s aid in a public school have the time or money to go to Jamaica?
If you’re going to throw out strawmen, at least try to make them reflective of something vaguelly resembling reality.
Gee: lies and innuendo.
What a surprise.
Judgmental? Yes, I am indeed judgmental of a system that says kids on the east side of the major road get laptops, the kids on the west side, well, sucks to be them. Here’s a newsflash, the public school system IS a socialist system, a collectivist system, by its design. I don’t advocate for all schools to be as “shabby” as those in “ghetto” areas, I advocate for an elimination of duplicative infrastructure and the elimination of arbitrary, racist and classist boundaries that exist in places like Akron and Pittsburgh, which would improve the lot of students across the board.
Taking responsibility includes understanding that the commitment to accessible and equitable public education isn’t limited to children only of your economic strata. This is especially true in light of the long history of segregation in our public schools; “separate but equal” has been technically struck down by our courts, but what’s replaced it is separate and wholly unequal, perpetuated because that separation isn’t enforced on racial lines, except where those racial lines are drawn on maps. There’s simply no justification, whatsoever, for it.
It is not socialist to fund all schools equally. Go deeper. Go further than current arguments are covering. Every generation we, as a society, make excuses as to why we shouldn’t raise our children with every potential explored. How many opportunities has our culture, our nation, our neighborhoods missed because of rationalizing the inequities in public school funding? How many Langston Hughes, Luis Walter Alvarezs, and Amy Tans will we never know because they went to school on the other side of the tracks? We should treat every school as if our child goes there. That’s not socialism. That’s being a human being on the planet earth who gives a damn.
It is not socialist to fund all schools equally. Go deeper. Go further than current arguments are covering. Every generation we, as a society, make excuses as to why we shouldn’t raise our children with every potential explored. How many opportunities has our culture, our nation, our neighborhoods missed because of rationalizing the inequities in public school funding? How many Langston Hughes, Luis Walter Alvarezs, and Amy Tans will we never know because they went to school on the other side of the tracks? We should treat every school as if our child goes there. That’s not socialism. That’s being a human being on the planet earth who gives a damn.
We shouldn’t be allowing school segregation in this country in Public schools, by class or by race.
We shouldn’t be allowing school segregation in this country in Public schools, by class or by race.
Um, Elon, how about we extend this conversation into the fact that rich suburbanites invade top public magnet schools in other states and cities. Non-residents regularly send their kids to Stuyvesant, Bayside, and Bronx Science. Would the readers who want to see this poor woman go to jail want to see those rich people from Greenwich sent to jail for that? Would they be as adamant that she was a thief if she was one of those people instead? I think not. What does NY law say about this same offense?
I know people from good school districts in New Jersey who stole spots at NY City public schools. Is anyone as enraged by that? They had a good option and were just chasing the name to justify the theft.
Um, Elon, how about we extend this conversation into the fact that rich suburbanites invade top public magnet schools in other states and cities. Non-residents regularly send their kids to Stuyvesant, Bayside, and Bronx Science. Would the readers who want to see this poor woman go to jail want to see those rich people from Greenwich sent to jail for that? Would they be as adamant that she was a thief if she was one of those people instead? I think not. What does NY law say about this same offense?
I know people from good school districts in New Jersey who stole spots at NY City public schools. Is anyone as enraged by that? They had a good option and were just chasing the name to justify the theft.
That’s true. Plenty of white folks do the exact same thing the woman in the article did, sending their kids to “School of the Arts” located in the cities while the kids’ immediate family lives in the suburbs. They need to be called onto the carpet, too.
I bet you can find 800 people who would give a dollar a month to send her kids to school.
I think you might be able to change this whole story, educate some kids and humble some folks in Ohio (who should be deeply ashamed right now).
Wow, this is a very sad story. Why do we even have a country that does not afford every child the SAME chances? The law “no child left behind” is a farce then, because obviously this mother knew that if she’d send her children to the school in her neighborhood they would be left behind. So sad, I hope they children will be alright.
You and I both know of many folks who have lied about addresses to get kids into another school!
You and I both know many families who have lied about addresses to get kids into another school! Totally unjust sentencing!!
Did she break the law? Yes. Should there be consequences? Yes. But the response to this is over the top, and this family will pay an horrific price. And how will that improve the situation for Ms. Williams-Bolar or the situation for other kids in Akron. This could have and should have been settled without the courts. It’s an abusive use of the legal system, and I hope residents will demand an accounting. What did this prosecution cost?
The answer to improving schools isn’t as simple as changing the funding, because schools are only one part of the equation. Family stability, community expectations, nutrition, community stability, safety all come into play. Our schools have been a source of control and power for politicians and unions for too, too long, and that must change as well.
Finally, when Ms WIlliams-Bolar is sentenced, I hope the governor will immediately pardon her, or at the VERY least commute her sentence. And I challenge every teacher’s union to contribute to a fund to pay any fine, and help her finish her education.
You had me on board until your last paragraph. Totally unnecessary.
Well turning this into a dissertation about racial inequality is a fantasy. While this investigation was on going, there were other investigations going on as well. The events that transpired were the catalyst that projected this investigation into the national headlines. She refused to pay the fine, which others who were investigated did. She refused to have her children removed from the school and fought the district. It has nothing to do with the fact that she is black, poor, or that she sent her kids to a “white school”. The facts that affected this case are that the school district that her children were attending had higher taxes on those residents that went to the level of education provided. She wasn’t paying those taxes and REFUSED to pay taxes, which is the root of the problem. Are there ways to get a better education for your children, yes. Another job? Public and private assistance? No, I guess there were no other choices left so she broke the law. Does the punishment fit the crime, in my opinion, it doesn’t. I think they should have her pay back the taxes lost and call it even, but the school district already tried to get her to pay it back and she refused, which is why it ended up in court. Oh, and the answer to the authors question, I will have to impose another as part of the answer. Yes, you have been paid back by the lives of Americans in the civil war. Perhaps the blood of America’s sons isn’t enough? No? I didn’t think so.
I remember 1981 very well – or at least one event from it: Reagan’s elimination of federal funding for public primary and secondary education. He always gave “returning responsibility to the states” as the reason. He argued that the state government’s would fill in where the federal government withdrew, and so they did – with this result. This is the predictable result of “returning responsibility to the states.” How could no one see this coming?
I remember 1981 very well – or at least one event from it: Reagan’s elimination of federal funding for public primary and secondary education. He always gave “returning responsibility to the states” as the reason. He argued that the state government’s would fill in where the federal government withdrew, and so they did – with this result. This is the predictable result of “returning responsibility to the states.” How could no one see this coming?
I want to see a social movement to 1) help Kelley get this experience behind her, including the payment to the school district; 2) fund an appeal, in particular to remove from her sentencing the fruits of her own effort, and allow her to become a teacher in Ohio. This is not a crime, but a story of social inequality and is a clear indicator that only those who pay may educate their children, in the rich white neighborhoods. That is not the American way.
Maybe we should start a petition for President Obama to pardon her because she wants what he wants. Education for her children so they can have a better life.
MLK said we have a duty to disobey an unjust law, the school funding in Ohio is unjust (per the state supreme court).
Why is there no mention that the way Ohio funds its public school system is unconstitutional (by the Ohio constitution) and has been declared so 4 times, and yet nothing has changed. As an Ohioan this story makes me want to laugh and cry. Despite what the district wants to believe everyone in Ohio still pays money for that district, property taxes may make up the bulk of the money but it isn’t all of the school’s budget. Sad to say that the racial dynamic can not be denied (in most of Ohio btw). If the Governor does not pardon her (an I suspect that he will not), there will probably be repercussions in the rest of the state. Many schools, especially in that area, allow athletes to go to their schools (think of Lebron James). I suspect many city schools may start calling out this practice, and also shinning the light on the parochial schools (that also receive a little bit of state money) that flat out pay people to attend (getting parents jobs, and buying houses). Down state many of the “whiter” southern suburbs of C-bus have committed suicide by not passing levies, and have to cut AP classes/ language classes/ arts classes. Basically, the college prep track. Other burbs and C-bus public are pretty lenient when it comes to letting people from other districts go to their schools. I suspect, that a tough stance by the governor (and his attitude of trying to act like the mayor of Columbus) will make the C-bus public schools officials react differently to those from the outer (and once hostile) burbs. Many C-bus schools are actually pretty good (especially compared to almost any other area in the state). What is really funny (again in a sad way) is that I’m sure the prosecutor an most of the parents consider themselves Christians.
Again, if you find yourself using a water canon on protesters or trying to have a mother serve a 5 year term in prison for getting her children into a different district, you are probably on the wrong side of history (and a horrible person). Lastly, let’s not pretend the issue of school levies is only an “urban” issue, I have seen many rural communities fail to pass levies, and ultimately have to sell their middle school buildings and rely on trailers. This is also an issue of young and old, as much as the politicians (like the current Ohio gov.) like to say, the truth is they don’t really care about the younger generations. They think they can live forever and that they will not pay, or face any consequences for their decisions.
What is left out of the posting is the fact that Ms. Williams-Bolar was given the opportunity to avoid criminal charges if she resolved the issue with the district. Those options included working out a payment plan to pay back the out-of-district tuition or moved the children into the school district they actually lived in.
Full disclosure- white guy in his 30s with kids. Don’t really have much sympathy for Ms. Williams-Bolar. Although I cannot afford to purchase a home in the school district we live in I searched high and low for a rental I could afford. As a result of paying more for housing than I would pay if I lived in other areas of town I’ve sacrificed other things- I haven’t had a vacation in seven years, my car is 12+ years old, my household is furnished one step above a college student’s (no cinder blocks at least). So, I seem to be able to play by the rules.
However, since “it is for the children” seems to be a valid defense to lying and then refusing to take responsibility for it, perhaps I should stop paying my bills, my student loans, and go rob a bank and, once caught, declare I just did it for the kids. Then maybe people will write sob stories about me.