Rev. Al Sharpton, Activists to Stage Rally in Ohio
Kelley Williams-Bolar was sent to jail for nine days last month following a jury trial that found her guilty on two charges of falsifying records after she used her father’s address to enroll her daughters in a school near his home. Williams-Bolar has said she wanted them in schools near her father’s house because she wanted the children in a safe environment while she attended school in the evenings.
Currently, Williams-Bolar is employed with the Akron Public School system as a teacher’s aide. She is studying to become a teacher. More than 165,000 people have signed petitions calling on Ohio Gov. John Kasich to pardon Williams-Bolar. The governor has asked that state’s Pardons and Parole Board to review the matter.
Williams-Bolar’s defense team from the Ohio Justice and Policy Center is preparing her defense and is submitting paperwork to request a pardon. Watkins said the case of Kelley Williams-Bolar is about more than one individual or one family, and that is why he has gotten involved.
“You have to look at the big picture. Quality of education is the focus. Not just one person,” Watkins told BlackAmericaWeb.com.
"I am involved because I am sick and tired of seeing human rights violated by woefully inadequate public education funding,” he said. “People are not just supporting Kelley Williams-Bolar to be nice. They sympathize with her because they have done the same thing to get their children in better schools.”
The Copley-Fairlawn School District is not the only public school system in the country going after parents whose children are attending schools not in their home districts.
Last month, as Kelley Williams-Bolar served her time in jail, the Muscogee County, Georgia School System in Columbus announced that it would start prosecuting parents who don’t live in the district but send their children to its public schools.
“Being here without paying is stealing,” Muscogee County School Board Chairwoman Cathy Williams said in an article published in the Columbus Ledger. That school system is expecting about 7,000 additional students to enroll soon because of jobs associated with military base relocation.
“Every seat is precious,” Williams told the Ledger.
Under Georgia law, any theft over $500 is a felony, school officials have said. They argue that tight budgets and potential crowding forces the system to get tough. It costs about $2,500 for students to attend Muscogee County schools if they do not live in the district, but live in the state of Georgia. If a student lives just across the state line in Alabama and attends a Muscogee County school, the cost is more than $8,000 a year per student, according to the school system’s treasurer’s office.
In 2006, officials with the Copley-Fairlawn School District told Williams-Bolar she could either pay tuition – about $6,800 per child each year – or move into the district if she wanted her two daughters to continue school there. She lives in an Akron public housing community.
The matter dragged on for a couple of years through formal complaints and hearings. When the school year began in 2009, the girls did not return to schools in the suburban system.
Kelley Williams-Bolar’s father, Edward Williams, also is facing charges related to his daughter’s case.
He is charged with one count of grand theft and one count of tampering with records in connection with allegations of fraud to obtain various benefits from county and state public service agencies.
A Summit County Ohio judge has set a trial date for April 19 on those charges.
Source: BlackAmericaWeb.com
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