We know the law is the law, but come on have a heart? According to the news report:
Connecticut authorities have filed charges against a homeless mother for enrolling her 5-year-old in a higher-income elementary school using a false address. Tanya McDowell, a homeless, single mother, who at one time worked in food services, is accused of registering her young son in a school that he is not eligible to go to. If convicted she could face up to 20 years in jail and pay a $15,000 fine for the crime.
McDowell was charged Thursday with first-degree larceny and conspiracy to commit first-degree larceny for allegedly stealing $15,686 from Norwalk schools. She was released after posting a $25,000 bond.
Other reports say the mom wasn’t really homeless just living in another town with a worse school, either way she decided to use her friends address.
If you were the judge and the jury how would you rule?
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If I were the judge this bull shit ass case would immediately be tossed the fuck out!!
I agree. I can’t believe this is even an issue. What should be illegal is attempting to charge someone with this nonsense..
I agree with you completely. this is a bullshit case.
but the case is part of a bigger issue. it deals with the nature of how public education is paid for.
public schools receive funding based on the average per capita income of their district. for example: your community averages… say 100K salary per household – and your schools might get say 40K per child per school year (these aren’t real numbers – but a representative example). you live in a community where households average 25K per family – and your schools are getting much less – maybe 16K-20K per child per school year (it’s not a straight proportion but I don’t have a link for the math right now).
you live in a poor district – your school gets less dollars per child in your community. so this guarantees that the children who stand to benefit the most from an education are getting the worse education on a dollar-for-dollar basis.
couple this with the fact that poorer schools face much bigger problems that require MORE money – not less, like: nutrition/school lunches (poorer kids often do poorly in school because they eat poorly and thus can’t concentrate. they eat poorly because their parents are either undereducated about how nutrition affects academic performance or simply can’t afford it), security (more security issues at poorer schools – security guards draw salaries; metal detectors cost money), special ed, day care and after school, extracurriculars and sports, etc., and the biggest fact that no decent teachers want to teach in the hood.
the problem is that our educational system is designed to create a caste system – a lower class – perpetually undereducated over generations. It’s because the haves are so short-sighted that they don’t realize how intimately this classism will ultimately affect them.
The system should be overhauled. Applaud this woman for having the balls for trying to game the system instead of playing the cards she was dealt.
A cop can kill an unarmed man and face no criminal charges, but a mother seeking a better education for her child gets prosecuted for manipulating the system…WTF? Something is seriously wrong with our society.
The prosecutors on this case should loose their jobs!! I wonder how many open and unsolved missing persons, robbery, murder and rape cases does this county have that allows them the time and resources to go after this woman on these trumped up and ridiculous charges. I also wonder if she’s black and if the school is white. Damn shame!!!!
apparently we use the law to enforce the socioeconomic divide, sweet….
A clear example of overt and conspicuous class & race segmentation.
Proponents of the asphyxiating traditions of hate are very much alive and wealthy.
Its a crime if you’re trying to better ya kids future by any “SENSIBLE” means , huh?
All you muthafuckers will get y’alls ONE day. I guarantee that.
Fuck your upper echelon schools anyway ya damn kids are not comin’ out smarter.
Infact, they’ll be the ones hookd on heroin, coke, and them other fucked up poisons.
Fuck yall.
If she really was homeless, what address was she supposed to use to register her child? I don’t see any problem with her behavior but what really shocks me is the fact she could face up to 20 years in prison. I could live with the idea of paying high fine but 20 years in prison is far too much.
only in America.
the wall street screwing the world economy and no one went to prison. yet they arrest a woman for sending her kid to school. Most of the prison are privately own
so wall street need to make money. They need more young black men in prison .thats why they don’t want the parent to seek better education for her kid .
What about the millions of non- American students that have been paid for by tax dollars for years in this country?
If she gets in trouble so should evveryone
I can’t believe that it has gone to the extent of prosecuting this poor woman for trying to give her son an education. For wanting an education for her child so that one day he will become a SOMEONE in society. Would you rather her not send him to school and get his education from the streets, where he might grow up to be a criminal. I mean which one is the smarter choice? AND I am appauled that in this country we would give a heart to a criminal to live, but a woman who wants to give a better life through education to her child could possilbly be convicted and serve 20 yrs. This is absolutely ridiculous.
More of the “Have” versus the “Have-Nots”. All the freaking government officials want to keep raping the public. If you don’t comply you are forced into homelessness and or prison. When are americans going to wake up????? People don’t do drugs or commit crimes because they like ugliness, they do it or are forced into it by the “haves” trying to make an extra buck of the the backs of the little people. If we stop throwing money at them and thinking they are using it to support the homeless and we go out ourselves and help them then the situation will get resolved. Do you think they really use your money to help the homeless??????
Schools are required to provide a free and appropriate education to all children regardless of if they are homeless or not. It’s the law.
What is the purpose of the McKinney-Vento Education for Homeless Children and Youth (McKinney-Vento) program?
The McKinney-Vento program is designed to address the problems that homeless children and youth have faced in enrolling, attending, and succeeding in school. Under this program, State educational agencies (SEAs) must ensure that each homeless child and youth has equal access to the same free, appropriate public education, including a public preschool education, as other children and youth. Homeless children and youth should have access to the educational and other services that they need to enable them to meet the same challenging State student academic achievement standards to which all students are held. In addition, homeless students may not be separated from the mainstream school environment. States and districts are required to review and undertake steps to revise laws, regulations, practices, or policies that may act as a barrier to the enrollment, attendance, or success in school of homeless children and youth.
What is meant by the term “homeless children and youth”?
The McKinney-Vento Act defines “homeless children and youth” as individuals who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence. The term
includes –
• Children and youth who are:
- sharing the housing of other persons due to loss of housing, economic hardship, or a similar reason (sometimes referred to as doubled-up);
- living in motels, hotels, trailer parks, or camping grounds due to lack of alternative adequate accommodations;
- living in emergency or transitional shelters;
- abandoned in hospitals; or
- awaiting foster care placement;
• Children and youth who have a primary nighttime residence that is a public or private place not designed for, or ordinarily used as, a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings;
• Children and youth who are living in cars, parks, public spaces, abandoned buildings, substandard housing, bus or train stations, or similar settings; and
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• Migratory children who qualify as homeless because they are living in circumstances described above.
What Federal civil rights requirements apply to school districts in educating homeless children?
School districts, as recipients of Federal financial assistance and as public entities, must ensure that their educational programs for homeless children are administered in a nondiscriminatory manner. The Department’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR)
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enforces Federal laws that prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin (Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964); sex (Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972); age (Age Discrimination Act of 1975); and disability (Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as applied to recipients of Federal financial assistance and Title II of the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990, as applied to public educational entities). For more information about the application of these laws, contact the OCR enforcement office that serves your state.
Looks like if this woman gets the right person to fight this case.. she’ll be homeless no longer!
Coming from Connecticut I must say that this does not surprise me in the least. We are a state with taxes out the a$$on everything you buy or already own, revenue from casinos and yet are still in the red as the politicians line there pockets and continue to find ways to tax the residents. So why not take it out on a poor mother who is trying to do right by her child. This state doesn’t care only wants more $ to squander away.