From the You Just Can’t Make This Crap Up dept:
The homeless woman accused of stealing up to $15,600 from Norwalk taxpayers by sending her 5-year-old son to a city elementary school pleaded not guilty Wednesday during an arraignment in state Superior Court.
Defense attorneys Darnell Crosland and co-counsel Michael Thomas entered the plea on behalf of their client Tanya McDowell, 33, who is facing up to 20 years in jail on first-degree larceny and conspiracy charges. The case was continued until May 11.
[…]
Crosland said that his client was undeniably homeless when she enrolled her son at the school and he should have been allowed to remain there, according to federal law.
Aside from the right or wrong of the article, does anybody find it incredible it costs $15,600 TO EDUCATE A KINDERGARTNER?
That is one inefficient school district.
For four months of services.
And Alfie is taxed enough, but is against abortion as a choice for mothers.
jail the frickin prosecutor.
The sad thing is the only thing that will rescue AJ is a good education, and the company of healthy happy peers. His Mom is somewhat of a disaster area.
Of course the real victim is Alfie, our lady of perpetual martyrdom.
And where is the father in all this? Crack lady? Hmmmm.
The kid should not be put in a better school than he is entitled to. Here in CA, every parent of a new student gets very stressed this time of year worrying about what public elementary school they can get their kid into, since many of them are filled with underachieving kids who drag the whole student body down. Guess what? Some of those underachieving kids are crack kids with no fathers and parents who do not participate in the school because they are ignorant and have problems of all sorts. Mostly ghetto trash, frankly. And, by extension, they are black. Just like little Miss Muffet here.
I’m a little confused. In my experience every school is required to report it’s enrollment/attendance to gov’t agencies to receive tax revenue payments for each student. Will the State now have to sue the city for the return of it’s $15.6K?
Furthermore, while that may be the average per student cost – the addition of one student is very unlikely to have actually cost them that much and I’m sure the defendant’s attorneys will be looking for “actual” damages, i.e. a pint of milk, a lunch and wear&tear on some picture books. Probably end up being a misdemeanor.
Also, the logic doesn’t sound good. She was required to send her child to school by law. She did it. I’m betting it was ignorance on her part that because she had a part time home, she should have sent her kid to another school. So, now she is indebted to the school district for $15K supplied by the State whom they expect to now incarcerate the woman at an annual cost of $40K and placing her infant son in a foster home, probably at additional cost of $25K per year and a trial which sounds like it might be a major one (with a change of venue) AT LEAST another $100K and pay her court-appointed attorneys for three or four months work – call that $50K.
So, I’m guessing they’ll spend around $200,000 the first year because of an essentially victimless crime that actually put $15K INTO the school district’s coffers. The State is the one that’s out the money and they shouldn’t really care since they would have had to pay out to the proper school district, anyway.
The Governor of CT and the State’s Attorney need to give this a little thought. And maybe a plea deal. I’m sure this moron would be happy to plead guilty in exchange for probation and promise to never send her kid to that kindergarten ever again.
And this in a liberal state.
For Bobbo: Liberals want to make us all welfare recipients and criminals. Wake up America!
There has to be more to this story that meets the eye. Wonder what is not being reported. I worked in a school system, the people who enroll your kids at the school verify address and are usually very good at avoiding enrolling kids in the wrong school. And yes, they deal with the homeless too. She had to do something more than just enroll her kid in the wrong school.
This is a women living on the margins of society. There is something terribly wrong with wasting taxpayers money on this. Lets take a 15000 mistake and turned into a 500,000 to 1 million dollar plus joke (court costs, jail costs, child being made ward of court}. I bet anything that the school was mostly white and or upper middle class. To bad she isn’t a Goldman Sachs cokehead, whore loving (IRS allows them to write this off} thieving trader. Then her only problem would be that she stole such a small amount and the other traders would laugh at her.
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Maybe it’s just me? Why do I see a small, black, poor woman who is trying to be a good mother to her (apparently) well cared for and loved son, being chained (now there’s an uncomfortable image) and imprisoned by large white people? Where is Oprah’s number?
The woman had to lie about where she resided. That is iron. Even if you are sleeping at a vacant lot or in an abandoned car it has to be somewhere.
The cost on the other hand is way over the top compared to what it costs locally.
Because of the way the County/School district is funded it would be a cost but only if we have to do a refund but if you do out of county you are supposed to pay $7,500 per year or that was what they charged some years back. I would assume it has gone up but not that much.
If you got caught they just dropped the kid and reported it to the state. Um actually the state can look at our daily enrollment as is on a daily bases. The data base is in the cloud and the records are current as of the day.
We haven’t sued anyone. People have been forced to change schools, move, or pay the fee.
I suspect that the board hopes to prevent more cases by using her as a public example which is not going to be good for either her or her kid.
This is the state where accident victims are not helped by drivers, posted on this site. It is also a state not known for a large black population.
If she had carjacked a new car, it would have cost more than $15k, and highly doubtful be sentenced 20 years for it! Plus the court costs alone, will exceed this bill. Not to mention what it cost to keep her in prison. What’s with this excessive condemnation of non-violent crimes? Especially such sketchy ones as violating bureaucratic policies, that probably weren’t clearly defined in the first place. Like, if you’re homeless, your child can’t be schooled in the city where you use to live. Or where one’s job is, and post office box is, and where most of one’s income is still taxed. Just because no property taxes are being collected.
This Court case some more like they’re trying to make an example of her, to scare others from attempting the same. Or make themselves look good, with their major campaign contributors. The wealthy ones, who probably are sticking it to the common taxpayers, in their own way. And aren’t getting cracked down on, by the very same court for their own calculated abuses. The homeless simply can’t afford to game the justice system, the way the well heeled citizens do. But the court has to fill up the docket with something. So cases against petty, sketchy, crimes, fills the bill.
HAR !!!
#11 Bobbo – I know I am a maelstrom of inconsistencies. I am, undoubtedly the most liberal conservative you will ever meet. Or. possibly, the most conservative liberal. As we’ve discussed, I am for universal health care – just not the bill that was passed which is more a boon to the insurance companies and lawyers than to the patients. With some major caveats, I agree with your newest proposal for universal education. But that ain’t gonna happen unless we amend the Constitution.
People meet me in the field and assume I’m a bleeding heart liberal for the kind of work I do. Sometimes, when I’m volunteering, they assume I’m a missionary!
In truth, I’m a registered Dodocrat. I even campaigned for the Mule Party in the late 60s/ Early 70s I defected and did some work for Dr Spock and the People’s Party – a universal health care platform among other things.
So, here I am today, looking at what the Dodos are doing to destroy my country and I find myself getting more and more conservative. Liberally speaking.
I don’t think this is the right thread to go further and it’s one o’clock in the am (tee neung in the local vernacular) and I’ve had a very long and very hot day. I want a shower, a scotch and a bed. Tomorrow starts in five hours.
Animby–assuming you wake up and might remember what you were last doing:
1. Obama care is NOT any form of universal healthcare. You should know better.
2. Education directly affects the workforce and business which is commerce which Congress can regulate/fund/tax as it wishes.
3. Dodo’s destroying our country should make you more LIBERAL, not more conservative. Or not depending on how you define the terms.
4. Hard Liquor–good to make a mixed drink with. I can’t handle the taste of it but have enjoyed the buzz now and then. I think I might like gin?
5. May your dreams of the future outpace the history you have seen. (corruption of T Jefferson.)
Meanwhile, illegal aliens get all the public schooling they want. Unless, they’re homeless?
>This Court case some more like they’re trying to make an example of her,
Yea, stealing from people is wrong, but this woman was stealing from the government!
>Education directly affects the workforce and business which is commerce which Congress can regulate/fund/tax as it wishes.
Silly reasoning. Just because something affects commerce doesn’t mean it can be regulated. The Supreme Court already threw out the Gun Free Schools Act.
People affect businesses which is commerce, therefore Congress can regulate/fund/tax as it wishes.
Lyin Mike–Commerce Clause rules all the other rings. Suck it.
#19 Bobbo.
Didn’t make it to bed, yet. Pregnant lady in the clinic. First timer. She’s got a long while ahead of her. Got one of the girls watching her. I’m gonna grab that shower and go to sleep. But, first:
Yes, I misspoke. ObamaCare definitely is NOT universal healthcare. It barely qualifies as health care. It’s more of an infernal contraption that requires teams of lawyers to decipher, interpret and litigate but is basically designed to prop up and make the insurance industry more profitable.
Education under the Commerce Clause? That may be too much of a stretch even for a progressive agenda. With that logic, sneezing would be covered by the commerce clause since I reached for a tissue and it was manufactured across state lines. (Old joke: transporting gulls across state lines for immortal porpoises! It still cracks me up…) But, I guess you, like so many progressives, feel the commerce laws can include anything they wish. I’m afraid you’re in for a big disappointment when the courts get hold of ObamaCare. [That presumes no re-election because a 2nd term will likely see a shift in the makeup of the SCOTUS. Their refusal to fast-track O’Care worries me.]
Defining terms. I’m afraid you and I would be arguing those points for a very long time. Unsuccessfully.
I only said I WANTED a scotch. Not that I would have one. In fact, the shower won’t be hot, either. (Nice thing about the tropics – the water won’t be cold.)I’ll drink a local beer in the field but I do not bring hard liquor with me. Sometimes, the locals will offer me some homegrown “rum” but my mama didn’t raise me to go blind from consuming methanol.
The Corruption of Thomas Jefferson – sounds like the title of a pron film. Any black slave girls in it?
Good night.
#18 Animby, you might not be getting more conservative, the country is probably getting more liberal under your feet.
As the Dems have slide ever further toward the Clinically Psychotic/Psychopathic Left, the rest of the country has by and large let itself be dragged Leftward in the Dems’ wake.
By Today’s standards, Harry Trueman and and maybe even FDR would be considered rabid Conservatives by today’s Dems/big city news media. JFK a north east Repub (frequently “hiking the Appalachian trail”, and LBJ – creator of the Great Society Programs – would practically a Blue Dog Democrat.
#25 The 2010 healthcare reform is very similar to Nixons plan. I suppose he was a closet liberal?
Reagan would never get the nomination in today’s Republican environment. I guess he was a commie since he believed in immigration amnesty.
Clinton promoted business and free trade with Nafta and the DMCA.
Obama is “so far left” that several of his policies are indistinguishable from G.W. Bush. Single Payer wasn’t even on the table for god’s sake.
There is no radical shift left, despite what Rush may claim.
You got a little koolaid on your chin there…
I agree with the Alfie. I demand to see Trig Palin’s birth certificate.
The real lesson from this story:
If you are brought to trial, don’t have a lawyer who looks like Penn & Teller, and a witness with an ugly bowtie.
OK, so I better ‘fess up.
I avoid government tolled roads by taking alternate routes to work and play.
So sue me. (I’ve always wanted to say that!)
A highway / school that is on my path. No sign, roadblock or fence that declares I am not allowed to drive / attend – because a public official will lose his lunch-money.
Apart from the fact I may not be able to read the sign even if it was there… why not put the effort into allowing me and my children to integrate into society, rather than puttng me in jail – where the cost is borne by the public’s lunch money – not a politician’s.
Oh.. I get it.
At least I’m good at maths !
Better be VERY careful about typos or poor penmanship on any form lest you be prosecuted for fraud.
This is the obvious result of the governmental control of education that the liberals love. This is just maybe the first time you saw someone break the law and try to get her kids into a good school, in the face of not having the option of school vouchers.
Can one of you geniuses explain why people shouldn’t have the choice of where to send their own child?
This woman is obviously paying no taxes no matter where her kid goes to school, and I am paying insane taxes despite not having kids. If we are going to attach wealth distribution to every part of governmental services, at least let these people get some good out of it instead of sending them to a crap school. Oh, that’s right – we have to keep them in a school then enforces their dependence on government, lest they choose a private school that allows them to be successful.
By they way, I have coworkers who send their kids to private schools for less than $400/month, including profits. Why is this school so inefficient that it is milking the taxpayers for over $1700/month per child?
keeping my guns and ammo ready……
#33: Hopefully the ammo are blanks and the rifle is made by Daisy or Mattel, just so you won’t shoot your eye out.