In January, we wrote about the particularly disturbing case of Kelley Williams-Bolar, an African-American single mother convicted of two felonies and facing prison time because she used her father's address on a school enrollment form so that her daughter could attend a safer school.
Williams-Bolar lived in Akron, Ohio, in a school district that, like many urban districts populated predominantly by poor people of color, is understaffed and underfunded. Although the judge suspended the sentence to 10 days jail time and probation, Williams-Bolar's status as a "felon" barred her from ever being able to obtain a teaching license, a credential she was working toward. By February, the highly publicized case prompted Ohio governor John Kasich to ask the state parole board to review Williams-Bolar's prison term.