Education is vital to the solid upbringing of a child. Whether parents choose to homeschool their children, foot the bill for a private or parochial school, or go with the public school available in their area of residency, it’s incredibly important that they value education.
Sadly, a lot of parents don’t … and sometimes those that do find themselves between the proverbial rock and hard place, as is the case with Ohio’s Kelly Williams-Bolar, a single mom recently sentenced to 10 days in jail for lying about her residency so her daughters could attend a well-regarded school instead of where they should have been going based on their living situation in public housing.
Four years ago, Williams-Bolar, 40, sent her girls, now 12 and 16, to the Copley-Fairlawn school district that was outside her Akron district of residence, reports said. Her father lives in the Copley-Fairlawn district, and she said she lived with him part-time after her home was burglarized and she wanted her children safe.
“When my home got broken into, I felt it was my duty to do something else,” Williams-Bolar said, according to ABC.
Williams-Bolar, ironically a college student in the field of education, has been accused by the Copley-Fairlawn district of “lying about her address, falsifying records and having her father file false court papers to circumvent the rules.” The district requested tuition to the tune of $30,000, an amount Williams-Bolar was unwilling to pay.
While I understand, appreciate, and even respect Williams-Bolar’s intent here, a $30,000 settlement with the school would have been more than fair. While her father might have paid taxes to the school district, she did not. She cheated the system, she got caught, and she did not take the out that was offered her.
While I realize that $30,000 is a lot of money, it sort of cheapens the principle of her point that she refused to meet the district that she’d swindled halfway.
Oh, and after being convicted of tampering with records on January 15th, Williams-Bolar had the audacity to tell the judge that there was no intention of deceiving the school. Come on, please! No intention? Are you stupid, lady?
I can totally see why you did what you did. I can. You wanted what was best for your kids, and I can relate to that 100%. But to tell a judge that this wasn’t an intentional act on your part? No wonder people are outraged.
And, in a jailhouse interview given last week, Williams-Bolar as much as admitted that she’d lied to the judge.
“If I had the opportunity, if I had to do it all over again, would I have done it?” she said. After pausing, she answered: “I would have done it again. But I would have been more detailed. … I think they wanted to make an example of me.”
Is she right on this? Some people, including the presiding judge, Patricia Cosgrove, don’t deny that. However, it was necessary to draw a line in the sand in terms of families defrauding public school systems, and this was an ideal opportunity.
I think what pisses me off the most here, beyond her lying about it being “unintentional,” is that Williams-Bolar lived in public housing. You, me, and every other Joe or Jane Taxpayer essentially paid her rent. If you’re in need of welfare benefits, Ms. Williams-Bolar, then you’re going to have to put your children in the school where those welfare benefits place you.
I’m not unsympathetic. I was a single mother working three jobs while going to college full-time at one point in my life. I slept about three hours a day and kept my daughter’s future in the forefront of my mind when the going got tough instead of trying to cheat the system. You have to make tough choices sometimes, and it really sucks when it’s to the detriment of your kids. Because I was always working or in class, my daughter spent far more time at day care or with a babysitter than I would have liked. It was a rough few years, but I bit the bullet with an overall picture of the end result in the back of my mind.
And how about other options? If her district school was so awful, why didn’t she try to find a private school to educate her children? Most private schools have good financial aid packages if there is a need, and if your children meet the often-stringent academic requirements. Or, even better, how about working with the Copley-Fairlawn district once you were caught? They were willing to work with you …
Copley-Fairlawn Superintendent Brian Poe said the district has lost hundreds of thousands of dollars because of children illegally enrolled in its schools. The cases are usually resolved by parents proving they live in the district, taking their kids out of the schools, or paying tuition of about $800 a month, the station reported.
$800 a month is significant, but if your kids’ education is that important to you, you’d find a way to do it instead of trying to backdoor it. A lot of districts wouldn’t even offer this as an option, particularly considering the circumstances.
Anyway, Williams-Bolar shot herself in the foot even more egregiously here. As a convicted felon, she cannot become a certified teacher … so all the time and money she’s put into her own college education has likewise been essentially wasted.
I hate to say it because, like I said, I have to respect someone who is so very invested in her children receiving a quality education, but in my opinion, Kelly Williams-Bolar ultimately got what she deserved.
But what if she actually didn’t have the money to pay the settlement to the school? Currently she is living in government funded housing. If her ultimate goal is to get her children out of that area as quickly as possible, then a garnish on her wages would diminish the chances of that ever happening. Again, putting the kids in private school would reduce her chances of moving to another area. After all, while their education is obviously quite important, I’d say not living in an area where you are at risk of having your house burgled is even more important. Placed in her situation, I likely would have done something quite similar (if moving in with my father in his residence wasn’t an option, which I will assume it was not).
While William-Bolar did break the law, and therefore got what she deserved, the public focus on this story should be on the situation which created a woman who was willing to lie and cheat in order to get her children out of that area. Perhaps some attention should be paid to a public investment in securing a better education and safer walk home for children in this area, rather than focusing on this woman’s legal turmoil.
If she was living in public housing, what the hell makes you think she had $800 a month for each child? Or even for one?
Besides that, her argument about not cheating the system was that her kids lived with her father part time, and he was in the district.
.
Anybody growing up in the projects who wants to get out knows the only two way are money (usually earned illegally) and education.
.
And you think she got what she deserved for trying to get her kids the thing they needed to get themselves out of their poverty? You think she deserves to have the only hope of her own future ripped away from her for that?
It’s fucking ridiculous that this is a felony.
There are a lot of sub-par schools. I don’t fault Williams-Bolar for wanting her children to attend a good school. However, if every “poor” parent who felt this way tried to lie their way into a better school, it would be chaos … and blatantly unfair to the parents who kill themselves to provide an educational opportunity for their kids by working extra jobs…if she worked at McDonald’s or something on top of her regular job, she could pay the $800 a month. I know. I did it.
*
And if her kids were “living” part-time with her father, she should NOT have been receiving public assistance based on her being a full-time single parent. She can’t have it both ways.
How does one work 3 jobs and go to school full time and raise a kid? I’m not questioning the validity of this statement, it’s just something I have trouble figuring out. Would you have to take classes all clumped together in the morning and work one job Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and then divide the other two up on the other days? Even with 3 hours of sleep, logistically I’m stumped.
It sucks. You don’t sleep. You make tough choices. You do not screw over other people or break the law.
Specifically, worked early morning and late afternoons at my daughter’s day care, went to morning classes on MWF and slept in the afternoon before work (at day care), cashiered third shift at a convenience store, worked weekends (30 hours) at my hometown job (my parents watched my daughter on the weekends). Sucked. Nightmarish.
*
Possible.
Oh, and two long classes on Tuesday and Thursday. (Can you tell I’m fired up about this? :-))
o.O
Holy monkey balls. My brain would ‘splode.
Katie, It also sounds like you had a loving supportive family behind you to make this possible. I had the same. I worked a very high stressed 50 hour per week job and went to night school while having 2 kids. Yes, 4 hours of sleep a night was a good night. Looking back now though, I realize a lot of my health problems have to do with the constant stress I put myself under. Those are the choices we make when trying to have it all.
.
I still don’t think she looked at this as defrauding the school system, she wanted her kids to have a better opportunity. As you pointed out she was attending college and was trying to get off of welfare to have a better life. Nothing like slapping a person trying to better themselves. I think the punishment is way too severe for her crime.
The biggest problem I have with this is that it is a felony. With the shortage of teachers or at least (no offense Katie) GOOD teachers (my school growing up was poor as shit and at least half the teachers had been fired from their other jobs and this school was the only place that would take them, all the good ones left as soon as possible) I think it is terrible that her ability to help students is gone for life. Yes she shouldn’t have tried to cheat a school, but killing her future for trying to help her kids is bullshit.
I don’t blame this Mother at all. She wanted a good education for her kids so that maybe they wouldn’t end up on welfare. Not to make it right, but I know lots of people who do this. I don’t think she even thougth of defrauding the school system, I think she just wanted what was best for her children.
.
I agree with Laura’s comment. “While William-Bolar did break the law, and therefore got what she deserved, the public focus on this story should be on the situation which created a woman who was willing to lie and cheat in order to get her children out of that area.” That comment speaks for itself.
I think what she meant about not intentionally defrauding the school was possibly that she didn’t even think about it as fraud. Since the kids spent a lot of time at their grandfather’s, I can see how she may have convinced herself that it wasn’t a big deal.
It would be nice if the Department of Education made sure that all schools met adequate standards,regardless of the hood!
That would require money, which America is not willing to invest in our youth.
Yeah,they only had a budget of 47billion last year,how could anyone make do with that.
Skinner: It’ll cost you.
Audience: No to taxes! My God, they’re going to raise taxes!
Edna: C’mon!
Audience: She makes a good case. Good point!
Skinner: [rubs his fingertips together]
Audience: More taxes? Oh yeah the taxes! The finger thing means the taxes!
It isn’t the amount of money America spends as a whole on education, it’s how the funds are distributed. You can quite literally have a very wealthy district mere miles from an inner city dirt poor district.
I don’t have a solution, but off of the top of my head, I’d suggest that their has to be a more equitable way of spreading out the education dollar.
Here is a very interesting article on school spending:
http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_5982482
.
It’s from 2007, but I feel it has validity today.
*there
fml.
Gimme coffee. Stat.
That’s a great article,everyone needs to read that. It’s not lack of spending thats gotten us into this mess. I work with kids who have high school diplomas and can’t add fractions.
As anyone with a speck of common sense knows – you can’t build a solid structure on a shaky foundation.
We have drifted into gimmicky, quick and dirty ways of teaching. I have seen a move back in my district, and test scores have reflected this.
I took a course a few years ago based on Edward DeBono’s theories that was absolutely incredible. The fellow teaching the course is bringing it to the US. Keep your fingers crossed.
I’m sorry but blaming it on teaching is not the answer. I was fortunate enough to attend a K-12 school where tuition was $18,000 a year. I have also taught at an inner city public school in the same area as part of a service learning class. The quality of teaching was fantastic at both. The difference was the crumbling prison walls (yes, the public school was built by a prison architect because it was cheaper), the cuts to funding that took away music, art, and after school programs that enriched the quality of education for those kids, and forced the class size up to 50 kids in a classroom meant for 20. And the fact that the kids KNEW this – when we don’t invest in a child’s education, he or she realizes that no one cares about success for that child.
Sorry, Shannon.
The proof is in the pudding.
.
When I was taught to read (by my Grandmother – a teacher) at the age of 3, I was taught phonetically. This is a slower method and requires more initial instruction. By the age of 7, I was able to finish an entire set of Encyclopedia Brittanicas in less than a month because I was bored and had no books left to read.
I am not unusual. I do not know of one single person in my entire graduating class of nearly 400 who could not read proficiently.
.
By contrast, todays kids are sent home with a weekly list of “sight words” that their parents are to drill them on, This started in the early 80′s in my district. The reading scores (especially comprehension) started a slow, deadly slide about 3 years afterwards.
.
It is foolish to attempt to refute facts with rhetoric.
Blurry, I’m shocked by the number of students in my major who cannot write to save their lives. When did everyone else stop learning about comma usage and run-on sentences?? Neither of the two concepts are difficult.
I was taught to read with sight words. I’m quite literate. The pedagogy debate has moved pretty far past how to teach children to read. Children today need to be taught 21st century skills in order to eventually compete in the global workforce. If there’s no money for computers, how are they supposed to do that?
Also if teaching quality is a concern, keep in mind that budget cuts to higher education mean tuition hikes and shrinking graduate programs across the board as states decide to screw over higher education systems instead of cutting funding to prisons or corporate taxes. This means that even fewer talented people will be attracted to such a low paying profession, especially if they have loans to pay back.
What the hell are you nattering on about?
.
No one has said a word about teachers being to blame for the whole mess, have they?
.
You are looking for something to argue about.
Direct quote, from you “We have drifted into gimmicky, quick and dirty ways of teaching. I have seen a move back in my district, and test scores have reflected this.”
Do teachers not do this teaching you speak of?
When my husband’s grandmother was a teacher (in Canada) they changed from phonics to memorization.
She refused to change the way she was teaching, because she knew it was stupid. She got in all kinds of trouble.
.
When I was a kid, in the 80′s, they were switching our school over to that too. Luckily my dad had already taught me to read before 1st grade. He even went so far as to teach me the root meanings of words so that when I came across an unfamiliar word I was able to piece together the meaning of the word.
.
I don’t know of any teachers who thought it was a better way, but they were forced to teach the curriculum.
I always a better reader, and speller, than any of the kids I was in school with.
Shannon, IF you are a teacher, as you claim, then you KNOW that teachers are NOT in charge of curriculum or changes to same.
They may offer input, but they are not in charge. They simply teach the material according to district policies, using district materials.
All it takes is one really good text book salesperson with a new, improved maths program and a district may be fucked until such time as they have the funds to replace the texts.
I never claimed to be a teacher. I said I taught as part of a service learning class. Meaning that I taught two classes once a week for a semester. And maybe things are different where you live, but here there is indeed a general curriculum of subjects and topics that need to be covered, but the way it is taught is up to the teacher (except in elementary school, where the teachers of each grade come up with a teaching plan that they all use). Otherwise, they’re teaching to get kids to pass those stupid tests required by the No Child Left Behind act so they don’t get fired.
Here is a brief report on the most popular science books used in the US. Unfortunately, I can’t find the original study.
.
http://www.thisistrue.com/e_mc_sup_3_sup_just_sounds_better_7550.html
Blurry, the text book I had for Biology was from the 1970′s. I’m not joking.
I will not deny that the text book industry is all kinds of screwed up, starting with the fact that TEXAS gets to decide what goes in them all. Fortunately the internet has made it much easier for teachers to make packets from different sources, enabling to choose the best material for each subject instead of having to rely on one textbook for everything. I just wish more teachers would do that. It’s what we do in a lot of my college classes.
This is why I’m glad I live in a state where you can choose to go to school, as long as you can provide your own transportation if you live outside of the district of your chosen school. I think it’s preposterous that this is a crime elsewhere. Urbanized schools are for the most part shitty as hell thanks to white flight and the interstate highway system (seriously, it was one of the causes of ghettoization of a lot of urban centers). This woman didn’t send her kid to a different district with the option of actually moving to the district, so it’s not like she was trying to evade taxes or something. She is physically unable to move because of her housing situation. And no, I don’t think it’s acceptable to treat people on welfare as second class citizens just because they need assistance. This woman is obviously doing her best to get off welfare, by getting an education both for herself and for her children.
Y’all are forgetting that Andrea Zuckerman pulled this scam on Beverly Hills 90210. It worked out pretty well for her.
@ Erin, but posting here because the thread is getting annoyingly thin.
.
I know exactly what you are talking about. I had to basically re-teach all of my kids (except the youngest who seems to have an innate sense of how to write) how to organize and write simple papers. This is FREAKING important!
.
How can these kids use the new technology (that’s a reference to your computers, Shannon) if they can’t input clear, concise sentences?
.
I’ll never forget when my eldest daughter was given the assignment of writing a 3 page paper on the Vietnam War for her History class. I think she was in 5th or perhaps 6th grade.
.
I read the paper the night before she was to turn it in. It was HORRIBLE! It was all out of order, run on sentences, misspellings, major facts left out, disjointed and just plain BAD.
.
I thought and thought about what I, as a parent, should do.
Should I help her re-write it, or let her learn from her sub par work? This is a girl who always excelled academically, and was actually very competitive.
In the end, I decided to let her fail. I figured that she would actually learn more from the bad grade than she would my nagging.
Makes sense, right?
She got an A.
I was astounded, I still am. From that day forward, I took over teaching my kids the proper way to write a paper.
Now, they deserve their A’s.
Oh my goodness I have never comment on this site but I have been reading it for over a year now but Katie Loud! Woman you are… something else!
You worked 3 jobs, studied, two kids on 3 hrs sleep and the one thing u think when u hear that another woman is trying to find a way from this (breaking the law, which she should be punished) is to you jeer that she deserves to loose any chance of a job in the field she is training, pay a huge refund and her kids back in poverty?
Really? That is what you thought from such a sad situation. Nowhere in your article did I read about how the system should help single parents and make education fair for all children across the classes. No second chances.
“Kelly Williams-Bolar ultimately got what she deserved”
Katie Loud, please look at the bigger picture before thinking about yourself. Not everyone is as perfect as you are.
Australia
Sounds like the Australian school system sucks also.
They try. We believe in a “fair go”. No marginalization, thank you. Public facilities are just that, for all.
I don’t know what the problem is, but we most certainly have one. Every summer I work with high school kids,and I’m more dumbfounded each year.I live in the midwest,we don’t have a bad neighborhood within 500 miles of my city,these kids come from middle to upper class homes. I wasn’t even close to being a good student,but I feel like a fucking genius after talking to some of these guys. Last year I had a senior who didn’t know what the Civil War was.
Oh, I know many a child that can get on a computer and spins circles around me on you tube and such, but when it comes to looking things up, if it weren’t for the instant searches that appear they would get nowhere, because they cannot spell. Writing, as Blurry pointed out, impossible. A calculator is allowed at their desks to use in math, hence no math skills without it. Basic fundamentals must be taught before they advance into the “new” skills of the 21 st century.
Tell LeDouche that I’m raising the white flag. I’ve tried basic html tags for breaks, to no avail. (cut me a break here – it’s been 25 years since my last programming class)
.
My kingdom for the secret of your clean, clear paragraph breaks, oh Evil one!
Blurry, There is a way. My problem was I didn’t want to experiment so LaDouche could say Nah Nah!!!! Hopefully, he will make it easy on us, if not, I know I can figure it out!
When The Douche got heated during the abortion thread,a few days ago,he said he(or she) was leaving. I have an idea its just circling,waiting to pounce!!
Oh, Lola will be back.
If only to cackle at my paragraph efforts :)
Let me try something here.
My mind is struggling mightily to remember the html stuff from eons ago.
My husband is a programmer/code writer. He posts here, very infrequently, under the name of Ryan Shadowpants (his facebook stripper name).
I’ll ask him to figure it out and then share.
Sorry I didn’t think of it sooner. I didn’t realize you were so close to the breaking point!
Oh man, how did I miss that Joey? I’d have done a jig and streamed it live for all to see!
It was Jan 20th,the article on DIY abortions. This means we won V.
I feel like we should have a parade or something.
Pingback: You Can Blame Pattie Mallette for Bieber Fever – Zelda Lily, Feminism in a Bra
I am appalled at the author’s commentary on this news story. “She got what she deserved”? Really? her intention was not to maliciously defraud the PUBLIC education system. Her intention was to take her kids out of the damned hood!!! Her crime wasn’t “stealing funds”, her crime was not moving across the street (wherever that is) to send her kids to that school. I can completely see this lady’s train of thought and my heart goes to her. I personally have considered doing what she had the nerve of doing, because I am poor, because Im currently working two jobs, going to school full time, and I can’t afford private/college education to my little girl. I don’t have the time to educate her, the school must fulfill this role. The school is failing, and so she will fail too like the thousands other students that passed by it and never made it to college.
Shame on you for blaming her. She is a desperate mother. The culprit here is the horrendous education system, that it is so broken.. US companies and colleges end up offering visas to foreigners that can occupy the positions Americans are not occupying.
While I get what you’re saying (I have kids, too, and I want them to get the best possible education), at what point does education become a free-for-all where parents can send their kids anywhere in the country on a whim? Laws exist for a reason … flagrantly breaking them instead of trying to change them through appropriate channels is teaching your kids a lesson that you probably don’t want to (kids with an entitlement complex running completely amok because they were taught at home that they were somehow above the rules). It’s a slippery slope …
There’s no law that presents you from sending your kids to any school on a whim. The only limitation is if the parent has the money for it. Public education IS free-for-all. Raising spoiled brats takes more than lying in a document so that they can get a decent education. EVERYONE bends the rules at some point, or lies, or cheats someone. If you logic is true then ALL kids should suffer from “entitlement complex running completely amok”.
My daughter drives a junky car with high mileage. She attends an affluent school and parks next to European imports. Does that mean it’s okay for me to steal a BMW for her because I want her to have “the same opportunities as everyone else”? That’s pretty much what you’re saying…
*
Also, I teach at a low-performing school. Our graduates that choose to put everything into the education we offer get into big-name schools and do very well. As both a parent and a teacher, my heart aches for this woman…but I don’t think her situation made her somehow “special” enough to be above the law when thousands are in her position and set a higher moral example for their children.
Erm, that’s not really the same thing at all. Education is a right, luxury cars (or cars at all) are not.
Thanks Erin.
Katie Loud seems to think that seeking better education from a rotten system is the same as her wanting a BMW for her daughter to drive to her affluent school. Education is a right, and good education should be accessible to all.
I get that stealing is stealing and all that and agree with Katie… I’d have loved to hear more of these “proper channels” referred to in the article than calling the woman stupid and “dancing on her grave”.
I am not saying what she did was legal, neither I am I saying what is legal is right.
Well said.