Homeless Woman Arrested for Sending Son to School

[HarveyDarkey]

A homeless woman in Connecticut has been arrested for one of the most unthinkable reasons imaginable -- she sent her son to school. Tonya McDowell, 33, was arrested last week and charged with first-degree larceny for stealing $15,686 -- the cost of the public school education for her 6-year-old son..

To make matters worse, the child's babysitter, who provided documentation that said the boy lived at her Norwalk address, was evicted from her public housing unit for her role in his education. McDowell and her son had been bouncing between an acquaintance's home in Bridgeport and a homeless shelter in Norwalk with the boy spending afternoons with the babysitter. The school he attended was in Norwalk School District, which had recently decided to crack down on infiltrators.

Norwalk Mayor Richard Moccia told the Stamford Advocate, "This now sends a message to other parents that may have been living in other towns and registering their kids with phony addresses."

Wow, what a harsh way to send it. And how exactly is putting this woman in jail going to help remedy the situation? It's not like she's going to be able to pay the money back, and what of her child? Will additional taxpayer dollars be necessary to care for him?

http://thestir.cafemom.com/big_kid/119190

[joshcryer]

1. Atrocious.

[aquart]

2. Make the schools equally good and end the problem.

[aikoaiko]

3. If there ever needed to be an exception to the rule, this is it.

Sad, really.

[Suich]

4. Thought this was from The Onion...

Insane!

:crazy:

[grillo7]

7. I wish it were :/ n/t

[Canuckistanian]

5. God forbid the lower classes ever get educated

They might get ideas and stuff, asking questions and demanding justice.

[sabrina 1]

6. Charles Dickens described this mayor in his writings

This country really has become one of the cruelest counries, no, THE cruelest in the civilized world.

I hope there is such an uproar over this that the mayor loses his job. He does NOT belong in that job.

Prison for being poor. How sad for the child whose life already is not the best, to now have his mother in jail.

And I bet she cannot afford an attorney.

What a great country! :eyes:

[dkf]

8. Where was her son supposed to go to school anyway?

Isn't he a truant if he doesn't go?

[pokerfan]

11. Then they can arrest the mother for that

Damned if she does, damned if she doesn't. WTF is wrong with this country?

[dkf]

14. This puts an all new angle on homeless kids.

[InkAddict]

9. Just how low does it go; and how does this help the child at all.

I grow more frustrated as days go by...yet from personal experience I can relate to the overwhelming selfishness.

After relocating in the late 80s to a Warm and Cheerful community well-known for the quality of its public schools,we were told that our daughter would NOT be provided any public school elementary "worksheets" extras in order to get up to speed in her new school where the curriculum was a bit more advanced, because the yearly student census had already been taken and she had not been attending at the time of the census...we moved over Christmas break.

[Paradoxical]

10. Every day I retain a little less faith in humanity.

[Chris_Texas]

12. Are there no prisons or workhouses?

[amyrose2712]

19. +1 Let them die "and decrease the surplus population" nt

[Incitatus]

13. God bless America

:eyes:

[Hannah Bell]

15. kr

[Obamanaut]

16. About 200 responses at these earlier threads. ->

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=439&topic_id=946777&mesg_id=946777

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=439&topic_id=918882

[Sanity Claws]

17. Her son is entitled to public schooling somewhere

The law requires that her child attend school. If the school in which the child was enrolled was the wrong one, then that means the school should have sent the bill to the correct school and then facilitate enrolling the child there.

But sending the mother to jail for accessing services at the wrong place? Man, that's crazy cruel.

[northoftheborder]

18. This is absolutely unbelievable>>>>>

This poor child, this poor mother.... who in Connecticut is yelling and protesting at these heartless and cruel events???