The jury deliberated for seven hours and the courtroom was packed as the sentence was handed down. She was convicted on two counts of tampering with court records after registering her two girls as living with Williams Bolar’s father when they actually lived with her. The family lived in the housing projects in Akron, Ohio, and the father’s address was in nearby Copley Township.
Additionally, Williams-Bolar’s father, Edward L. Williams, was charged with a fourth-degree felony of grand theft, in which he and his daughter are charged with defrauding the school system for two years of educational services for their girls. The court determined that sending their children to the wrong school was worth $30,500 in tuition.
When I read about this case, a few thoughts went through my mind. First, it’s clear that the court is trying to make Kelly Williams-Bolar into an example. Even the judge in the case, Patricia Cosgrove, said that her sentence was appropriate ”so that others who think they might defraud the school system perhaps will think twice.”
Secondly, it’s interesting how courts find it convenient to make someone into an example when they happen to be poor and black. I’d love to see how they prosecute wealthy white women who commit the same offense. Oh, I forgot: Most wealthy white women don’t have to send their kids to the schools located near the projects.
A final interesting blow by Judge Cosgrove that reflects the experience of marginalized African Americans in the criminal justice system relates to Williams-Bolar’s quest to obtain a teaching degree. The single mother was in school studying to become a teacher so that she could create a better life for her girls. But that won’t happen for her family now, given that the judge has all but shut the door on her chance to fulfill her dream:
“Because of the felony conviction, you will not be allowed to get your teaching degree under Ohio law as it stands today,” the judge said.” The court’s taking into consideration that is also a punishment that you will have to serve.”
This case is a textbook example of everything that remains racially wrong with America’s educational, economic and criminal justice systems. Let’s start from the top: Had Ms. Williams-Bolar been white, she likely would never have been prosecuted for this crime in the first place (I’d love for them to show me a white woman in that area who’s gone to jail for the same crime). She also is statistically not as likely to be living in a housing project with the need to break an unjust law in order to create a better life for her daughters. Being black is also correlated with the fact that Williams-Bolar likely didn’t have the resources to hire the kinds of attorneys who could get her out of this mess (since the average black family’s wealth is roughly 1/10 that of white families). Finally, economic inequality is impactful here because that’s the reason that Williams-Bolar’s school district likely has fewer resources than the school she chose for her kids. In other words, black people have been historically robbed of our economic opportunities, leading to a two-tiered reality that we are then imprisoned for attempting to alleviate. That, my friends, is American Racism 101.
This case is a textbook example of how racial-inequality created during slavery and Jim Crow continues to cripple our nation to this day. There is no logical reason on earth why this mother of two should be dehumanized by going to jail and be left permanently marginalized from future economic and educational opportunities. Even if you believe in the laws that keep poor kids trapped in under-performing schools, the idea that this woman should be sent to jail for demanding educational access is simply ridiculous.
Read more at drboycespeaks.blogspot.com
Urban teachers are paid at least a third more than suburban teachers, and the Democratic Party running the school board forces the tax payers to pay for homosexual insurance. So, when you make the statement “that urban schools are underfunded” that is absolutely not true.
The Akron school district that this benefit pump (Williams-Bolar) resided in spent $14,000 per student. The school district she was stealing from spent 10,000 per student (my figures come from the Ohio Department of Education). Roughly $4100 came from the state; the rest came from each school districts tax payers. So she was stealing about $12,000 a year from the Copley Township tax payers.
Racism has no place in this conversation. Black, so called political/social pundits like yourself should check you testicals, if they are intact, use them and began to address the real problem decimating the Black Urban Education, the homosexual/teachers’ union coalition running the Democratic Party…
The first thing the homosexual/teachers’ union coalition did via the Obama administration was cut funding to the Historically Black Colleges, after President BUSH (who you most likely have called racist several hundred times) raised the HBC funding to $170,000,000…
Well, you tell me BLACK MAN?
I hope this lady somehow finds justice in this bleak situation.
If I were a rich man I would hire her the best lawyers money could buy so she could give her kids a shot at a better life and then expose this gross miscarriage of justice and the heartless, hypocritical monsters who perpetuated it.
Lady Justice, you’ve peeked through that blindfold because you KNOW this is not JUST!!
1..UPDATE…WHITE CONSERVATIVE REPUBLICAN Governor John Kasich has reduced her felony convictions to misdemeanors and given her a “second chance”. He did this even against the recommendations of the parole board to deny her any relief.
2..For those of you who wrote she did it for a better school…you are wrong. She admitted to the court that her only reason was that she thought her children would be safer after school, not that the 2nd school was better.
3..Kirk Douglas above is correct…the REPUBLICAN supported “voucher” system would have allowed her to get her children to another school. Liberals, Democrats and teachers unions fight vouchers. I strongly urge everyone to elect Repubicans so that Kelly Williams-Bolar (and “Vonda” above) will get a voucher to send her children to a school of her choice.
4..”K. Williams” above suggested that others might also be sending their children to wrong schools. Even if that is true does that justify what she is doing? If you murder and get caught, do you argue that there are murderers who have not been caught and it makes it ok for you? I fail to see how pointing to others violators (who have not been caught) somehow makes it ok for her.
BOTTOM LINE…White Conservative Gov. Kasich came to the rescue. Conservative supported idea of “vouchers” would allow school choice.