This is disgusting. While lying on a government form is and should be a serious crime, this caring parent never should’ve been put in such a position. Another mark against the neighborhood model of public schools, I think.

“And doesn’t her original school district save the same amount of money they cost the new school district?”

No! That’s probably what the gripe is…the poor “stealing” from the rich : (

The girls father does live and pay taxes in the other district, even if his daughters don’t live with him. These two parents were cooperating to do what was best for their kids, and who did it hurt? No one until the gov’t stepped in. UGH!

STILL! That oughta count for something that the GRANDFATHER lived there…ugh.

If she wouldn’t have given the grandfather guardianship, they could have legally attended those schools, BTW.

Yet another example of how very flawed the public school system is in America. Most parents want their children in “good” schools, but the decision rests with a line on a map. Allowing schools to compete for students is the answer. Bad schools will either up their ante or fail. And their students will either benefit from increased performance, or a transfer. Yes, it is sad that a woman was penalized for fraud. However, if you do not like the system, work to change it rather than defraud it. It’s that simple.

A felony and JAIL?! Seriously?? Who the hell do I write the strongly-worded, outraged letter to?

this is just wrong. a mother who simply wanted better for her children.

It’s a felony. The law is the law. There should be no exceptions. My mother lives in the highest taxed area in Pennsylvania. She paid close go $15000 in property taxes alone. Yet none of her children used the public school system. Numerous families rent property here for the purpose of using the school district, yet do not actually live here.
What has been the result, the public schools now have classrooms over 30 students each. So what was once the best school district in the area is losing it’s excellence. It is unfair to use an address so your child can benefit.
My mother who is in her late 80s who never used the system at all still pays for those abusing the system. Jail is just. And please do not make this a race issue. My parents were both bright up in poverty yet found ways to support themselves and PAY for a proper education. Race and economic backgrounds should no longer be used as the blanket crutch

Nope Gretch- since I’m a taxpayer/employer I get a voice. No usurping/judging my private parenting choices and no leaving unless I get my $10K pus PER child in my hand to homeschool them myself.
I did however, originally state that I felt the jail sentence was overboard. So chillax a bit ;-)
No outrage here- but agreement that she does indeed need to be held to accountability for defrauding the system and breaking the law. If you lived here, you’d see it for the problem it has become. People play the system and cry when they get caught.

I’m just being a smart ass/dumb ass… : ) I get your side, too…

this is an OUTRAGE, is there a petition to sign??????????????

It is instructive to see the viewpoint of people who are perfectly comfortable with the system as it is, as long as the advantages continue to be theirs.

Or they actually worked to get where they are today @@
I started at 18 with nothing- a twin bed, and table with 2 chairs that were someone’s scrap. Live din a disadvantaged neighborhood with the crappiest school system- Cleveland’ after de-seg for 7 years. Worked in a factory, as DH worked in a machine shop. We saved til we could get married. Notice: no babies yet. Worked til we got a down payment for a home. Still no babies. Once we had babies, worked harder til we could move to a place with better schools before they needed them.
We didn’t play the system and I hold those around me accoutnable to those standards as well.

I am so tired of the issue of race and privilege being used as the catalyst for the “desperate” and “heroic” misdeeds of ones who choose to break the law. As goddess stated it’s up to each individual to decide their path. By using deception what in essence is that teaching her young children. They will have to continue this cycle of lying because of the mothers actions.

It is not brave- it is simply against the law. My parents worked 3 jobs each to work themselves out of poverty. It took close the 15 years for them to afford to move out the city, but they did with honest perseverance. They had children at the time, but never once did they feel that we should be used as accessories to a crime in order to better our lives. Once we did move to a better community we benefited from their hard work and every one of us, went on to college and then graduate school.

Life is not handed to you, she should have waited until she got her degree, then a good job and then moved her children, for now all her children will know is that cheating is the only way to get what you want out of life. Our society has become an entitled one. Education is not a right it’s a priviledge that must be earned.

Sorry for the typos am feeding my child as I vent.

One things that occurred to me, if you want to talk about “fairness” though, is that, OK, your schools are funded by your PROPERTY taxes. I just have ONE child, say using 10K of resources. Someone else has 3 kids using 30K of resources. We’re paying the same (assuming our homes are generally the same size). THAT is not fair. I noticed, too, that in my school system parents actually get discounts on things like after school programs for their second, third, etc. children. That is certainly not “fair”. Those children are not using any fewer resources. I won’t even go into the fact that folks get tax breaks for all these kids. I really think, in the age we’re in of dwindling resources and serious environmental issues, we need to rethink the benefits given to people for having so many children. In this case, this woman’s dad was paying the taxes…not letter of the law, here, but, still. I am a “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” kind of girl, myself, GODDESS, on my own at 18, no help w college from parents, waitressed through it all, but I do recognize that just by being born into a home where my parents, even if not rich, cared enough to nurture me, and even if, though not rich, not violent or scary, I didn’t have to dodge bullets and drug dealers going to school each day…well, I actually DID have some pretty remarkable advantages compared to folks living in many parts of cities or in projects…and, just the fact that I have white skin gets me passes others don’t get. It’s ugly but it’s true.

GP, depending on your state it’s even weirder, either less fair or more fair depending on your perspective.. I would contend that because you do want your daughter to have an educated peer group, and you will benefit down the road from your neighbors’ larger families being educated, it’s more or less fair that you all contribute the same amount to taxes and still only get *immediate* benefits based on how many children you have in public school. It evens out in the end, more or less. But consider Texas. We have the Robin Hood law for our schools, which means that all the government funding for public schools goes into a pot and gets divided evenly, so if a kid in Ghetto High wanted to come to my “better” neighborhood high school, he couldn’t, and it wouldn’t even be a question of where his parents’ property taxes go. My neighborhood school is only “better” because it has more involved parents and a safer surrounding community, but even if the Ghetto High students parents are the involved, bake sale type, they can’t send their son. Neighborhood schools are just inherently unfair.

That judge is just effed up. The sentencing is way over the top, and frankly it’s cruel. Sure this mom broke the rules, but it’s understandable under the circumstances. The problem is that some schools are so awful that caring parents will do whatever they can to keep their kids out of them. The issue that needs to be addressed is the massive discrepancies in quality of education from district to district. It bothers me that people are comfortable with the idea that poor kids deserve unsafe, terrible schools because their parents supposedly didn’t “pull themselves up by their bootstraps.”

I’m not talking about discounts for art classes and Saturday stuff, I am talking about for before and after school care for working parents…not really an “elective” kind of thing for most…

I can see some benefits of the voucher idea, but I lean more to the side thinking that people should work on their communities as a WHOLE, schools being part of the community. We shouldn’t segment our children from civic life and comparmentalize everything. To the population this: There are all different kinds of views and theories on population, and you’re right, that’s off topic, sorry I brought that up. But I do think it’s a potential problem, and there are plenty of experts/scholars who would agree.

I might say that the dollars aren’t the only factor. Cleveland city schools get over $3K MORE a year per student than our ‘burban school district.

As a convicted felon she will never be allowed anywhere near kids so her teaching career has ended before it ever began, thus depriving her of a decent living for ever…essentially a life sentence. I think a Presidential pardon is due.

Crazy. Jail time seems ridiculous. I think that the embarrassment, the fine, and the punishment of sending her kids back to their own school should be enough. Why ask why we have overcrowded jails when the answer is so obvious? And I’m going to go out on a limb and say that this has more to do with socioeconomics than race (I’m assuming court-appointed lawyer?).

I am sympathetic to Goddess, for sure. Rules are rules. Everyone needs to follow. I’m wondering why this mother couldn’t have moved in with her father? Or gamed the system in some other way that was “legit” (guardianship, letting the girls live with her dad at least part time?) so that this wouldn’t happen? Play it smart, lady. I don’t oppose a little bit of trickery here and there. =)

No, not ignorant, but not believing the end justifies the means, or that the sense of entitlement equals empowerment, Mistress Scorp.
And if your family sent you to another district against the law, I guess that explains your stance on this quite well.

Goddess, I was placed under my grandmother’s guardianship, therefore what explains my stance now? Further, what explains your comfort with the system as is? Desperate to get her children out of a bad situation equals entitlement in your eyes? Yeah, I’m going to go with your relative ignorance, because the alternative is pretty disgusting to fathom.

Not “you all”…I think it’s complete BS…(and other commenters, too, said the punishment was too harsh). This point “A felony conviction doesn’t only destroy her dreams of teaching, it pretty much destroys her ability to be gainfully employed in such a way that she can even support herself and her children” is perhaps the worst part of it ALL. The judge should be ashamed! The judge is actually perpetuating the social problem here. I don’t think there should be any damages paid or time served at all. If they have to send her kids back to their own school, well then they have to, and that is sad. But she shouldn’t face all this other crap.

For all of those who think a felony conviction was an outrage, go here for a link to a petition asking lawmakers and Patricia Cosgrove, the judge, to reduce the sentence on appeal.

http://blogs.babble.com/strollerderby/2011/01/26/petition-to-reduce-jailed-ohio-mothers-sentence-link/

I just read through all of the news articles on this woman and her family. There is a lot more to this story than just getting caught sending her children to a better school district. Ms. Bolar and her father were caught up in some shady deals with housing, taxes, disability and a home foreclosure. What a mess for all involved. Her poor kids!

Mis. Scorp.- the cases I am familiar with where people have been caught, they were required to payback the tuition and did not falsify legal documents. THAT is where this woman ran afoul- had she paid the tuition back when she was caught, she wouldn’t not have put herself in this position.

“It isn’t all about the money you throw at it.” This is true!

M-S — Thanks for your interest and fighting the good fight! She actually served all but one day of the 10-day sentence. I’m going to update that.She was released this a.m.

It looks like no one here works in social services. This story is the norm not the exception. Wait until you find out about the mother’s who demand to have their children placed in special education so they can receive SSI checks. It’s all about getting as much as you can from the system. Sad but true.

Hey Linda…no, I wish! Just go there from time to time because I know some folks there and it’s such a fun place.

I disagreed with alot of what Goddess said, however, I don’t think we should get too down on someone for wanting to be protective of their own, which is really what’s driving her comments, I believer. I think that often, the closer to the bottom many white people started, the more they feel, “hey, we did A, B and C and ‘made it’ so, so can others….” and I have tendencies to think that way, too, while at the same time recognizing that some folks in power STILL will let white people get away with things that brown people can’t, and that some people in power make assumptions about the motives of brown people. At this point in my life I have become, thankfully, soooo removed from any kind of hardship that it’s easier for me to “take pity” and feel benevolent toward Williams-Bolar, but I still understand how others, who may have had to work harder along the way, or are still struggling, would be less so. Anyway, I think way back Goddess did acknowledge that the felony charge was a little much. So we ALL agree this woman got a bad deal from the court and its just a matter of degree of how much less we each feel she should have got….

This wasn’t a race issuse. Grow up people. This was an issue of laws being on the books that allows the goverenment to decide where your children get an education. Homeschool parents have been jailed on mulitple occasions because they wanted to provide their children with a better education. When a homeschool family sends their children to a school the government doesn’t approve of they get accused of child abuse! First, get the poor woman out of jail so she can get on with her education and get her kids into schools she knows will give them an education. Second, change the laws so that it reflects the rights of a parent to send their children to the school they believe is best for their children!

@Madeline: sorry for getting the deets backward on that. I’d say the felony conviction will screw her more in the long term than the jail sentence.

White People: Oh racism is over since Obama is president.
White People: Black People are way more racist.

White People are still racist. Alot of White People voted for McCain, he almost won.
No one White was jailed for being at a black school. These incidents aren’t surprising. There are places STILL where Black People can’t go because of White People. They are an evil race. At least Majority. They have more evilness in their race than any others and that’s a fact.

@Madeline: another update from Change.org…
“Kelley Williams-Bolar’s father, called to clarify that her decision to enroll her children in the suburban district had nothing to do with the academic quality of the school and was because of safety issues. Williams-Bolar’s house had been broken into and she’d had to file 12 different police reports due to crime in the area, he said. Enrolling the children in the district where her father lived was a safety-based decision, and Williams wants to dispel any rumors that it was based on academics.”

I can’t tell if you’re kidding or not, but of course there are black people in Seattle. What the…?

OHYEAH….. You are so ignorant! I live here in Richmond, VA and let me tell you about racism. It goes BOTH ways.
In regards to your comments about white people being an evil race: Have you watched any documentary that involves Rwanda, Dafur, or Liberia?
Evil is not a white/ black/ color issue. Yes, there still is racism and evil all across this world.
We are reminded of that almost nightly with the mainstream media. Haven’t you heard Chris Matthews spewing his vile? (“If you are not for Obamacare then you are a racist!”~ bullshit)
Not one white is being jailed for being at a “black” school? You’re right! who would want to send their child to a crappy school where the PARENTS don’t care, the TEACHERS don’t care nor do the STUDENTS.
Do you think all whites go to these great schools? What about the Po-dunk backwoods counties too poor to properly educate due to lack of funds.
Your anger shouldn’t be addressed towards “white” people, maybe you should hold members of the black community accountable for not trying hard enough.
Oh wait, they would be acting too “white” if they did that, wouldn’t they?

@swp none of your ancestors were used for free labor for 400 years and were still poor. America owes every descendant of slavery at least the best education. To have families that have been poor since slavery is only Americas fault. The best schools should be in those areas with the best teachers, that is what a repentant entity would do, guess America is not repentant for its sins! what a shocker!

woah…I missed OHYEAH’s comment before (Or maybe just blew by it because it’s so riduculous) but SWP has a point, too, about the race thing and Rwanda, Dafur, or Liberia! I think what that shows is when people are ground down into abject poverty and desperation, they do desperate shit…no matter what their color

We have run across this with our son’s friends, past and present. We know of at least two families that currently attends our son’s school but does not live within the school boundaries. The first friend uses her mother’s address. And another uses another friend’s address. Since they are close friends of my son I don’t really want to be the one that ‘blows the whistle’ on them. We also ran across other families in previous years that were outside the boundaries as well. How did we know? Simple, one word, “playdate”. One of the friends even had a near close call. But the principal simply stated that unless she showed proof of residency within ‘x’ amount of time her kids would need to go to their own home school. He did not threaten to send her to jail (that I know of). Only that her kids would have to be removed from the school.

On the one hand, I don’t really fault the families for wanting a better education for their children. But on the other hand, I do pay property taxes because of where we live.

Unfortunately, its a case of the schools cannot accept every single student out there just due to size restraints. Thus the reason why there’s the boundaries in the first place.

However, I think putting the mom in jail seems to be excessive. If anything has to be done, just simply having the children removed from the school is enough.

YOU DONT HAVE EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY, YOU WILL GET EQUALITY OF RESULTS…AFFIRMATIVE ACTION…END OF STORY..AND IF YOU DONT HAVE AA YOU WILL GET TOP 10% OF ALL SCHOOLS INCLUDING GHETTO SCHOOLS ADMITTED INTO TOP COLLEGES, IE., TEXAS..THE RESULT IS THE SAME…EQUALITY OF RESULTS!! AND AN UNQUALIFIED BLACK WILL GET AHEAD OF YOU. IT IS HAPPENING IN TEXAS WITH THE 10% FORMULA!!