In 2011 African American mother Kelly Williams-Bolar was
sentenced to prison for enrolling her two daughters in a white school district
even though she lived at her father's house which was in the same school
district. Her father who was in his 60s at the time was also charged and
sentenced to jail where he suffered a stroke and transitioned to the ancestral
realm. This elderly African American man was jailed because he was accused of
aiding his daughter in sending her two children to a school in a white school
district where it was felt they did not belong. The elderly Edward Williams
lived in the school district and his taxes helped to maintain that school. Fast
forward to 2019 where 7 years after Edward Williams was jailed and lost his
life, a group of rich white people have been accused of cheating, lying and
bribing officials to get their children into schools. It will be interesting to
see how many of them, if any, will be jailed like Kelly Williams-Bolar and her
elderly father, Edward Williams.
Murphy Browne © Wednesday, February 9, 2011
KELLEY WILLIAMS-BOLAR
The families, Board members and staff in the school district
of Copley-Fairlawn in Akron, Ohio can sleep better at nights knowing that the
threat of two female African American students attending a school in their
overwhelmingly white school district has been removed. The Copley-Fairlawn
school district removed that threat with a vengeance and the whole law and
order weight of the American justice system. On January 18, 2011 an African
American woman Kelly Williams-Bolar who sent her two daughters to a school in
the mostly white school district was sentenced to 10 days in jail, two years of
probation and ordered to perform 80 hours of community service.
Essentially her crime was sending her two African American
children to a school in an overwhelmingly white district while having a home in
public housing. Willams-Bolar’s 64 year old father Edward Williams was charged
with "one count of grand theft for aiding and abetting his daughter in her
alleged deception to obtain educational services from Copley-Fairlawn
schools." He maintains that his daughter and grand-daughters lived at his
home during the two years the girls attended school in the Copley-Fairlawn
school district. In an interview with WJW-TV he was quoted: "She had 12
police reports that her house had been broken in, so what am I supposed to do?
Just leave them there? I mean, I can protect them better if they was with
me."
Now that the African American single mother is a convicted
felon her employment as a teacher’s assistant at a secondary school is at risk
and she has no hope of working as a teacher because of her recently acquired
criminal record. It could have been much worse but the very kind and
considerate judge who handed down a sentence of five years in prison for each
of the two felony counts to be served concurrently, in consideration of the
African American mother’s lack of a police record, suspended the sentence and
placed her on probation for two years. However, this good white woman, Common
Pleas Judge Patricia Cosgrove who sat in judgment of the African American woman
felt that some jail time was appropriate in the case and she sentenced the
defendant to 10 days in the Summit County Jail. The judge even empathized: “I
understand trying to do the best for your children, but the ends don’t justify
the means” and sympathized: "Because of the felony conviction, you will
not be allowed to get your teaching degree under Ohio law as it stands today,
the court's taking into consideration that is also a punishment that you will
have to serve."
Apparently this long and winding road to becoming a
convicted felon is paved with good intentions; the good intentions of an
African American woman determined to ensure the safety of her two young
daughters and “avoid a latch-key situation.” In a supposed post-racial society
this mother whose home in a government subsidized housing project had been
burglarized several times decided to move with her children into her father’s
home in an overwhelmingly white and considerably safer suburban neighbourhood
and was punished with a jail sentence and criminal record. One newspaper
reported that her father had suffered a stroke at the time and she was his sole
caretaker. Her daughters were 8 and 12 years old at the time and she was
employed as a teacher’s assistant studying to become a teacher. Living in her
father’s home she enrolled her daughters in a school in the local school
district which is overwhelmingly white so of course the two little African
American girls attracted the attention of all and sundry.
At some point between August 2006 and November 2009 when she
was arrested on multiple felony charges this woman must have spent some time in
her home in the subsidized Akron Metropolitan Housing Authority project but she
and her father maintain that his home was also her residence. It is not hard to
understand that not feeling safe in a home that had been burglarized a few
times but not wanting to entirely lose the home, she would have returned with
some trepidation but maintained residency in the safer neighbourhood (her
father’s residence.) It is also not difficult to understand that since this
mother was working full time and attending university at night she would not
have left her daughters alone in an apartment in an unsafe neighbourhood but at
their grandfather’s home, proving that it was a legitimate residence for them
to attend school in the district.
Even the 64 year old grandfather has not escaped the long
and heavy law and order arm of the American justice system. This African
American grandfather who “colluded” in ensuring his grandchildren’s safety was
found guilty in a joint trial with his daughter and is awaiting his sentencing.
Probably the very family oriented system decided that they should not send
mother and grandfather to jail at the same time thus leaving the children to
the tender mercies of the state’s “child protection” services. So it is
possible that the grandfather will be sentenced to jail now that his daughter has
served her time.
The mother has maintained that sending her children to the
Copley-Fairlawn schools was not based on a belief of her children receiving a
better education in suburbia; however the records show that in wealthy,
overwhelmingly white suburbs, children study in brand new schools which lack
nothing, in personnel, equipment or support needed for a high quality education
while poor, mostly racialized children study in de-facto segregated, poorly
equipped and overcrowded inner city schools. The 2009-2010 report card issued
for the school the elder daughter attended in the Copley-Fairlawn school
district has it designated as “Excellent with Distinction.” The 2009-2010
report card issued for the school the younger daughter attended has it
designated as “Excellent.” Other terms used to describe the schools in the
Copley-Fairlawn school district are “high performing” and “highly ranked” while
schools in the lower income areas are often described as “dropout factories”
and “failure mills.” The school district spent about $6,000 to pursue the
African American mother and grandfather eventually bringing them to a criminal
trial, a sum that included hiring a private investigator to monitor and
videotape the movements of the mother and her children.
This case was the first residency challenge to reach a
criminal courtroom although at the trial school district officials testified
that some 30 to 40 similar residency issues had arisen with other families
during the two years (2006-2008) the two Williams-Bolar daughters attended
school in the district. No one else faced criminal prosecution or civil court
action, the school officials said. Not surprisingly the prosecutor's office
refused to consider reducing the charges to misdemeanors during numerous
pretrial meetings to resolve the case outside of court which would have at
least prevented the threat to the mother's job and to her hopes of becoming a
school teacher.
Since the trial and jail sentence there has been much
support for the family including at least two sets of petitions. There have
also been several articles written in support of the family including one
entitled Parenting While Black: Ohio Woman Jailed for "Stealing an
Education" where the writer commented: ''If Ms. Williams and her children
had been white would the school have gone to this trouble to expose them as
supposed 'criminals?' and this comment on one blog: "It's interesting that
the judge wanted to send her to jail for her crime, but there are Wall Street
execs who got less time for stealing millions."
A coalition of activist groups delivered 165,000 signatures
collected from around the country Governor John Kasich on Monday, February 7,
2011 urging him to pardon Kelley Williams-Bolar. The groups seeking Governor
John Kasich's pardon for 40-year-old Kelley Williams-Bolar are
ColorOfChange.org, Change.org and Moms-Rising.org. Iris Roley, a member of
ColorofChange.org and chairwoman of the Cincinnati NAACP, said the groups
believe the case highlights inequities in Ohio's education system.
However, the persecution of this African American family
continues. A new attorney has been appointed to represent the father of Kelley
Williams-Bolar in connection with two felony charges that were severed from the
joint trial of Williams-Bolar and her 64 year old father last month (January
2011.)
Edward L. Williams was accompanied by a court-appointed
lawyer, Joe E. Perry, during an appearance on Wednesday morning (February 9,
2011) before Summit County Common Pleas Judge Patricia A. Cosgrove. Williams
was required to fill out a sworn affidavit of indigency and answer a series of
questions in open court before Cosgrove appointed Perry as his lawyer. Cosgrove
set April 19 as the trial date for Edward L. Williams.
Murphy Browne © Wednesday, February 9, 2011
