Mother jailed for tampering with records

[MEGAMANTROTSKY]

http://wsws.org/articles/2011/mar2011/akro-m07.shtml

An Ohio mother of two was jailed for nine days, placed on two years’ probation and required to complete 80 hours of community service for sending her two daughters to suburban schools. Her January 15 conviction provoked an outpouring of outrage.

Kelly Williams-Bolar was convicted of two felonies for tampering with records to enroll her daughters in the Copley-Fairlawn school district, just west of Akron, where her father lives. Williams-Bolar was originally sentenced to two concurrent five-year terms. But the judge reduced the sentence to time served after she made an impassioned appeal to not be taken from her daughters.

A single mother from Akron, Williams-Bolar is attending college and is three courses shy of acquiring her teaching degree while working as a teaching assistant at Buchtel High School in Akron Public Schools. This felony conviction means she will not be allowed to get her teaching certificate in Ohio.

She has always insisted that her decision to enroll her daughters in the more affluent Copley-Fairlawn schools was a matter of their personal safety and her desire to see that the children received a decent education.

The case began in the 2006-2007 school year, when Williams-Bolar’s daughters were in middle school. After the family’s home was burglarized, the Akron mother feared for her daughters’ safety and decided to transfer them to the Copley-Fairlawn school district where her father lives. For the children to be accepted, she had to state that she and the children were living with their grandfather.

The school district spent more than $6,000 to hire private detectives, who followed the children home to show that they were staying with their mother in Akron, and not with their grandfather.

 

[Nebz]

$6,000 doing a back-check on ONE family!? That's just a bit much, no?

 

[qlum]

what's the problem with going to school in another district than where you live?

 

[Law]

what's the problem with going to school in another district than where you live?

Placement systems. Most schools give priority to children who live in the area, whilst this woman committed fraud to get her children in.

 

[bowser]

The punishment seems very harsh though. Couldn't they have let her off with a warning?

 

[Deleted User]

She committed a "crime" for the sake of putting her children in a better school, yet the Government makes a big deal when your children don't go to school.

Fuck the United States.

 

[emigre]

She committed a "crime" for the sake of putting her children in a better school, yet the Government makes a big deal when your children don't go to school.

Fuck the United States.

And thus denied a child with a legitamite claim a place at that school. It's illegal and wron, you may be able to justify for itbeing the good of her children but it doesn't excuse what she did. ANd it's not just the US it happens in a lot of places because parents are willing to cheat the system.

 

[The Phantom]

Isn't that great, the government forces you to buy an inferior product that it has a monopoly on and if you say that school sucks I'm want my children to have a chance at a decent education the government says "no you have to use the really bad school" and if you send your children to a good school you're a felon. people should have school choice or vouchers for private schools but the socialist teachers union forces students into failing schools. Doesn't make any scene unless you're in the teachers union but then public schools weren't created to line the pockets of the teachers union even though it's ended up that way.

 

[nando]

schools are messed up. my kid's school threaten to sue us because my son was late to school over 20 times in a year. yes that's a lot of times but he was like right after the bell rang, not an hour or even 5 minutes later.

 

[Nebz]

I wonder why the School District did this in the first place... Did they say to themselves that it was suspicious for kids to be living with their grandfather and not their actual mother? Or did they just wing it and follow a random family?
It's likely the first but still... They couldn't have just let her go on? Jail for nine days isn't bad but it's still something PLUS the probation and community service.

I hope there was more to it than I'm just reading

 

[MercilessDeth]

what's the problem with going to school in another district than where you live?

Taxes. When you live in a particular school district, the taxes you pay support that public school. You can go to a school outside of your district, but it costs quite a bit, since you have to pay for the tuition as it's not covered by your taxes (and additionally, the taxes you pay cover most of the tuition to your local school, so in essence you're paying twice).

What this lady did was fraudulently claim the kids were living in the area covered by the other school district to skip on paying the tuition rate. This is illegal, but it's sort of up in the air whether or not you'll get caught (for example, an aunt of mine claims that her kids' home address is really their business address, in order to go to a better school).

The district spending $6k on private investigators seems really really excessive, especially since that was probably taxpayer money as well. But the point is it's a form of 'tax evasion' in a way so of course law enforcement will take it seriously if you're caught.

 

[The Phantom]

She committed a "crime" for the sake of putting her children in a better school, yet the Government makes a big deal when your children don't go to school.

Fuck the United States.

And thus denied a child with a legitamite claim a place at that school. It's illegal and wron, you may be able to justify for itbeing the good of her children but it doesn't excuse what she did. ANd it's not just the US it happens in a lot of places because parents are willing to cheat the system.

You show me the child that lost his or her place in a school because of this. The fact is when a child goes to another school the dollars follow that child then the child's new school is able to hire more teachers.There's not a finite number of seats in a school district or school districts would have to turn away students when a district grown in population and we know that doesn't happen. The law says this if fraud and the law is wrong. You shouldn't be forced into a failing school. Would you want that for you're children?

 

[Law]

She committed a "crime" for the sake of putting her children in a better school, yet the Government makes a big deal when your children don't go to school.

Fuck the United States.

And thus denied a child with a legitamite claim a place at that school. It's illegal and wron, you may be able to justify for itbeing the good of her children but it doesn't excuse what she did. ANd it's not just the US it happens in a lot of places because parents are willing to cheat the system.

You show me the child that lost his or her place in a school because of this. The fact is when a child goes to another school the dollars follow that child then the child's new school is able to hire more teachers.There's not a finite number of seats in a school district or school districts would have to turn away students when a district grown in population and we know that doesn't happen. The law says this if fraud and the law is wrong. You shouldn't be forced into a failing school. Would you want that for you're children?

Maybe it doesn't happen so often in America, but over here plenty of children get turned away because the schools just don't have the room and staff needed to teach kids in seven different languages, and the money they get just isn't enough to cover all the bills.

 

[MEGAMANTROTSKY]

She committed a "crime" for the sake of putting her children in a better school, yet the Government makes a big deal when your children don't go to school.

Fuck the United States.

And thus denied a child with a legitamite claim a place at that school. It's illegal and wron, you may be able to justify for itbeing the good of her children but it doesn't excuse what she did. ANd it's not just the US it happens in a lot of places because parents are willing to cheat the system.

More like the system has cheated them. The family was pigeonholed into either accepting a terribly funded public school district (one that has had trouble with mugging and crime, according to the article) or "fraudulently" attending one that had better financial luck. I think that's pretty "wron," don't you?

 

[nando]

i think in oakland we have an open district system but you go on a waiting list if you want to go on another district. we had a district (piedmont) become it's own city because they didn't want to support oakland schools. so there is a different city in the middle of oakland. we were thinking of renting an apartment there so out kid can go to high school there

 

[cwstjdenobs]

OK, what this woman did was wrong, but state funded education should not be better in more affluent areas. A child in a "rough" inner city school should have access to the exact same level of equipment and staff as a student in a nice little suburban school.

 

[Rydian]

Title is wrong.

Title: Mother jailed for enrolling kids in suburban school district
Content: Kelly Williams-Bolar was convicted of two felonies for tampering with records

She was jailed for tampering with the records, which is a crime.
The site seems to think the ends justify the means?

 

[notmeanymore]

what's the problem with going to school in another district than where you live?

Taxes. When you live in a particular school district, the taxes you pay support that public school. You can go to a school outside of your district, but it costs quite a bit, since you have to pay for the tuition as it's not covered by your taxes (and additionally, the taxes you pay cover most of the tuition to your local school, so in essence you're paying twice).

What this lady did was fraudulently claim the kids were living in the area covered by the other school district to skip on paying the tuition rate. This is illegal, but it's sort of up in the air whether or not you'll get caught (for example, an aunt of mine claims that her kids' home address is really their business address, in order to go to a better school).

The district spending $6k on private investigators seems really really excessive, especially since that was probably taxpayer money as well. But the point is it's a form of 'tax evasion' in a way so of course law enforcement will take it seriously if you're caught.

Finally someone who can explain the matter. Thank you sir for not allowing me to think that the United States is completely retarded. Just the state of Ohio

 

[emigre]

She committed a "crime" for the sake of putting her children in a better school, yet the Government makes a big deal when your children don't go to school.

Fuck the United States.

And thus denied a child with a legitamite claim a place at that school. It's illegal and wron, you may be able to justify for itbeing the good of her children but it doesn't excuse what she did. ANd it's not just the US it happens in a lot of places because parents are willing to cheat the system.

You show me the child that lost his or her place in a school because of this. The fact is when a child goes to another school the dollars follow that child then the child's new school is able to hire more teachers.There's not a finite number of seats in a school district or school districts would have to turn away students when a district grown in population and we know that doesn't happen. The law says this if fraud and the law is wrong. You shouldn't be forced into a failing school. Would you want that for you're children?

QUOTE(emigre @ Mar 7 2011, 01:25 PM) QUOTE(brandonspikes @ Mar 7 2011, 06:22 PM)

She committed a "crime" for the sake of putting her children in a better school, yet the Government makes a big deal when your children don't go to school.

Fuck the United States.

And thus denied a child with a legitamite claim a place at that school. It's illegal and wron, you may be able to justify for itbeing the good of her children but it doesn't excuse what she did. ANd it's not just the US it happens in a lot of places because parents are willing to cheat the system.

More like the system has cheated them. The family was pigeonholed into either accepting a terribly funded public school district (one that has had trouble with mugging and crime, according to the article) or "fraudulently" attending one that had better financial luck. I think that's pretty "wron," don't you?

You can play the whole "families," shouldn't have to be forced to send thier kids to failing schools, all you want. But it doesn't excuse using fraudulant information to get something you don't qualify for. You have parents (in the UK at least) playing the system to send little Tarquin into school X, which ultimately means you have parents with the knowledge and money (or even pretending to be religious) to get their child into the school of their choice which leaves kids from socially disadvantaged backgrounds to the failing schools. For your information, I went to a really shit school so I'm sorta know a failing school is like. My parents are immigrants who don't have a qualification between them and I ended up having a pretty bad education. I only left school with 5 GCSEs to my name. I'm now doing politics at a Good University becasue of a brilliant teachers (who happened to be a Socialist).

What parents should be doing is organising themselves and placing pressure at education boards to get better people running the schoolsb ut I won't go into a rant about (the British) education. Or alternatively you have politicians doing their bloody job.

 

[Foie]

This is why the United States public school system sucks. There is no competition and the bullheaded unions guarantee that bad teachers keep their job. This leads to kids, usually poor ones, getting stuck in bad city schools with no other options.