Homeless woman prosecuted for enrolling son

[Merkavar]

"Jail up to 20 years" Seriously? Why?

well atleast she wont be homeless for 20 years.

 

[Zaik]

There's an up side to this though folks. After she's jailed, she'll have a valid permanent address inside a school district, so it won't be an issue anymore.

lol.

 

[AugustFall]

It's harsh but people pay taxes to their school district. She circumvented the system. I can't fault her for trying to do the best thing for her son but she broke the rules.

Again, ridiculous punishment.

 

[Arizona Kyle]

What a bunch of baloney. This story is twisting the truth in order to make it a more interesting human interest story. She's not being prosecuted for enrolling her son in a better school, she's being prosecuted for falsifying federal documents. Sure, she's homeless, but she didn't have to put in false information, she could flat out told them that.

but then she wouldnt get her son in a better school

 

[AugustFall]

Seems utterly retarded to me. She should be able to enroll her kid in a public school. The whole point is that we don't have to pay for schooling, it should be freely available. But apparently not to the homeless. Great, then I bet people will wonder why that kid grows up to be a criminal when he had no opportunity. I bet they'll even complain about how should have gone to school.

You do pay for school. She could have enrolled her kid in her area but she didn't, she enrolled her kid in a higher income area where people pay higher taxes and thus have a nicer school.

I don't think the system is great but people in this thread seem to think she was just trying to get her son to school which is not the case.

 

[AugustFall]

What a bunch of baloney. This story is twisting the truth in order to make it a more interesting human interest story. She's not being prosecuted for enrolling her son in a better school, she's being prosecuted for falsifying federal documents. Sure, she's homeless, but she didn't have to put in false information, she could flat out told them that.

but then she wouldnt get her son in a better school

I hope you're trolling.

People in the area she enrolled in pay higher taxes. She does not. It's like taking advantage of the free healthcare in another country which do not pay taxes to.

 

[Arizona Kyle]

No, this isn't right. It's rage inducing. Life isn't fair, but fuck, this is just wrong. I mean, 20 years? 20 MOTHERFUCKING YEARS? I don't think she'll end up in there for that long, but she might be there for a little while. And who's to take care of this child if she's in jail?

On the other hand, if she's in jail the child could go to an orphanage and get into a better school that way. Life might be rough for him there as well, but I can't see his life getting better anytime soon. It's hard to tell who will have it worse, but if the boy goes to an orphanage then he'll have a better chance at living well than the mother.

Still, I'd like to get my hands around the bastard that did this, even if the boy does get a better life out of it.

Since when does being seperated by your family give you a better chance... and i swear to god if you say batman..... this kid is only 5 and he is already being put through this.... school sucks

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

She's homeless...exactly how are they defining primary residence? She sometimes stays at a homeless shelter in the area with the better school, exactly how much time does she spend in each district?

As a side note. Exactly what address are homeless single mothers supposed to use for school district purposes? They're homeless.

This. As a matter of fact, there are certain protections in place to allow homeless people to send their children to a stable school despite lacking a permanent place of residence; I hope this woman counter-sues the school district and gets enough money for it to get herself back on her feet.

 

[Astoria]

The American school system sounds pretty stupid to me. All she wanted was for her son to have a better shot in life. And seriously 20 years? That is ridiculous! That's the kind of sentence you'd give to a drug dealer.

 

[Arizona Kyle]

What a bunch of baloney. This story is twisting the truth in order to make it a more interesting human interest story. She's not being prosecuted for enrolling her son in a better school, she's being prosecuted for falsifying federal documents. Sure, she's homeless, but she didn't have to put in false information, she could flat out told them that.

but then she wouldnt get her son in a better school

I hope you're trolling.

People in the area she enrolled in pay higher taxes. She does not. It's like taking advantage of the free healthcare in another country which do not pay taxes to.

Well how come they cant just slap her on the hand and say go away

 

[Avatar Roku]

The American school system sounds pretty stupid to me. All she wanted was for her son to have a better shot in life. And seriously 20 years? That is ridiculous! That's the kind of sentence you'd give to a drug dealer.

Again, 20 years is the maximum sentence for the crime, her sentence will probably be much lower.

I get wanting her son to have a better shot, but the upshot is that she still lied on government forms and that is a crime. Being homeless is not a free pass to break the law.

Granted, the situation is more complex than it seems. I mean, how do you define a homeless person's residency? But, unless more details arise, this state of affairs seems fair, all in all.

 

[Astoria]

The American school system sounds pretty stupid to me. All she wanted was for her son to have a better shot in life. And seriously 20 years? That is ridiculous! That's the kind of sentence you'd give to a drug dealer.

Again, 20 years is the maximum sentence for the crime, her sentence will probably be much lower.

I get wanting her son to have a better shot, but the upshot is that she still lied on government forms and that is a crime. Being homeless is not a free pass to break the law.

Granted, the situation is more complex than it seems. I mean, how do you define a homeless person's residency? But, unless more details arise, this state of affairs seems fair, all in all.

I never said she shouldn't be punished, just not that severely. And a homeless person doesn't have residency because that's why they're homeless? Had she been Australian she wouldn't have needed to do this because here it's illegal for a child to not go to school, regardless of whether they have a home or not and you don't have to go to the schools that you are zoned for.

 

[BonsaiK]

It's been a while a story has ignited this kind of rage in me. A homeless woman who no doubt wanted her son to enroll in a better performing school is facing CRIMINAL charge: a fine and possible jail time up to 20 years. What a fucking disgrace. I mean, I already knew the public school system of the United States of America was joke, but this.....this is a new low.

Your thoughts?

Also: Source [http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110422/us_yblog_thelookout/homeless-woman-prosecuted-for-enrolling-son-in-conn-school]

Oh, this story again. We already had a thread about this one a few months back, when she got the initial charges. Strange system they have over there in the USA I guess, maybe this will become a motivator for people to change things over there, in which case I consider this case a good thing.

 

[Grabbin Keelz]

I noticed something about prison fines and sentences. They're always extremely ridiculous. I guess fines are sometimes low but whens the last time someone went to jail for like 1 year or even 5 years? It's always some ridiculous double digit number.

OT: Epic facepalm to US. You know I see a lot of posts saying what a terrible country America is and I try hard as I might to defend my country, but shit like this makes it really hard to justify this place. I'm actually starting to become embarrassed to tell people I live here.

 

[Randomologist]

Somewhat disproportionate to send her to prison, she's only looking out for her child as most parents do. Does the US have community service?

Anyway, this caught my eye:

An education advocacy group, Connecticut Parents Union, is holding a fundraiser to help McDowell pay the possible fine.

Call me a cynic, but if they start raising money now then the authorities will just turn around and say "Yes, $15,000 please, you can afford it now. Kthxbai."

 

[RicoADF]

What a bunch of baloney. This story is twisting the truth in order to make it a more interesting human interest story. She's not being prosecuted for enrolling her son in a better school, she's being prosecuted for falsifying federal documents. Sure, she's homeless, but she didn't have to put in false information, she could flat out told them that.

And what should she have put in there? She stayed in the district in a homeless shelter for awhile, he has NO adress coz shes homeless, whos to say she didnt stay at her friends for awhile?

 

[TheAmokz]

Those crazy Americans... They and their fucked up school system...