Sending Kids to a School Which Does Not Belong to Your Residential Area is a Crime

An Ohio single mother walked out of jail this week after spending ten days behind bars for sending her children to school. The wrong school, authorities say.

Kelley Williams-Bolar, 40, of Akron, registered her two daughters in the Copley-Fairlawn school district using her father's address in suburban Copley Township. The schools in her own Akron neighborhood were rated far below the suburban district, and Williams-Bolar told reporters the family considered her father's house one of their homes. Her father, Edward Williams, said the children did live with him.

The district disagreed. After hiring a private investigator to track the family, Copley-Fairlawn billed Williams-Bolar for $30,500 in tuition -- the cost of two years of out-of-district schooling -- and when she refused to pay, the case went to prosecution. On January 15, a jury convicted her of two counts of tampering with records, third-degree felonies carrying up to five years in prison each. Judge Patricia Cosgrove suspended nearly all of the prison time, sentencing her to ten days in jail, probation, and 80 hours of community service.

The case ignited a national argument about the fairness of a system that funds schools through local property taxes and then criminalizes parents who cross district lines. Williams-Bolar, a teaching assistant a few credits short of her teaching degree, faced a penalty beyond jail: under Ohio law, a felony record could keep her from ever getting a teaching license.

The case stayed in the news. That summer, Ohio's newly elected governor, John Kasich, reduced her convictions from felonies to misdemeanors after the state parole board declined to recommend a pardon.