When all else fails, bring up Jim Crow.
When I read about the case of Kelley Williams-Bolar, I find myself confused. The 40-year-old Ohio mother of two is being sent to jail for using her father’s address to send her two daughters to a school in a better district. Williams-Bolar lives in a housing project in Akron, Ohio, and had sent her children to school in Copley Township(1) using her father’s address.
Williams-Bolar’s father, Edward Williams, is also being charged with fourth-degree grand theft for stealing more than $30,000 in school services for the two girls. Williams-Bolar herself will spend 10 days in jail and be placed on probation. Also, the judge in the case, Patricia Cosgrove, made it clear that she was using Williams-Bolar to set an example for other parents who consider doing the same thing.
The judge went out of her way to tell the woman that she gave her jail time “so that others who think they might defraud the school system perhaps will think twice.”
(1) Note: Demographics for Copley Township explains everything:
http://www.copley.oh.us/copley-township/demographics
Population Percent US Percent
White 11,786 — 86.4 75.1%
Black or African American 1,169 — 8.6 12.3%