It is without a doubt that mothers will do anything for their children and that when they fear their children’s future and safety are at stake they will risk just about anything. But should a mother go to jail for trying to ensure that her children’s safety and education are preserved? That is exactly what happened to one mother, who knew she was taking a risk to place her children in a better school, she just didn’t know how high they really were.
Last week Kelley Williams-Bolar, a single mother of two middle-school aged daughters, in Akron, Ohio was sentenced to 10 days in jail and 3 years probation for sending her children to school in a safer neighborhood. The school in question was not in the district for which Williams-Bolar’s lived, it was however in the neighboring district where her father lived. The dedicated mother of two and aspiring teacher was parted from her daughters to sleep in a cold and hard jail cell, as if she were a common criminal all for wanting to see that her children were in a safer area and could receive a proper education, instead of facing the violence-plagued district where they live. Now Williams-Bolar is branded as a convicted felon.
Williams-Bolar was convicted and received a five-year sentence for altering official records, after claimed that her daughters lived with her father in a suburb of Akron, Ohio in order for them to go to a safer school than the one zoned for the housing project in which they actually lived. The judge in the case claimed the harsh sentencing was meant to serve as a lesson for other parents.
The case has gained substantial media attention and has now been featured on CNN, in The Washington Post, on Good Morning America, and in Time Magazine. A petition has been started on Change.org to see that this “crime” is removed from Williams-Bolar’s record and that her and her children will not have to suffer further consequences and jeopardize their future stability and safty. The 40-year-old mother and teachers aide is just a few credits shy from finishing her teaching degree and would never be allowed to teach in the state of Ohio if the felony crime remains on her record.
Thanks to considerable public outcries over the ironic injustice of the case, Ohio Governor John Kasich has now publicly stated that he will look into the case, however much more is needed to ensure that he is pursued to give her a full pardon so that she will be allowed to pursue her teaching career.
