I often wonder if I should channel my impotent rage into healthier pursuits, like low functioning alcoholism and suicidal ideation. It's really the only way I can walk on this earth without actually going on a killing spree. Because let's face it, how can humanity justify its own existence?
I mean, maybe they would have had a case if it doesn't seem like every chance we get, we pretty much kick the poor while they're down even more and more. It's not like we're slapping huge fines on those who least can afford it for simply trying to allow their children to get a better education and potentially pull themselves out of poverty
Oh wait, this actually happened. This fucking actually happened.
NORWALK -- A homeless woman from Bridgeport who enrolled her 6-year-old son at a Norwalk elementary school has become the first in the city to be charged with stealing more than $15,000 for the cost of her child's education.
Tonya McDowell, 33, whose last known address was 66 Priscilla St., Bridgeport, 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.
McDowell's babysitter, Ana Rebecca Marques, was also evicted from her Roodner Court public housing apartment for providing documents to enroll the child at Brookside Elementary School.
The police investigation into the residency began in January after Norwalk Housing Authority attorney Donna Lattarulo filed a complaint alleging McDowell registered her son at Brookside, but actually lived in an apartment on Priscilla Street in Bridgeport.
As part of the evidence presented in the complaint, police received an affidavit of residency signed by McDowell and dated last September attesting that she lived in the Roodner Court public housing complex on Ely Ave.
When she was interviewed by police in the case, McDowell admitted to living in Bridgeport at the time she registered her son in Norwalk schools.
She said she knew a man who owned a home on Priscilla Street and he allowed her to sleep at the home at night, but she had to leave the home during the day until he returned from work.
She also acknowledged that she stays from time to time at the Norwalk Emergency Shelter when she has nowhere else to stay.
McDowell also admitted that Marques was her son's babysitter from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. after the boy got out of school.
After the Norwalk Housing Authority became aware that Marques helped McDowell by providing documents needed to get McDowell's son into Brookside, Marques was evicted from her apartment in January.
McDowell's attorney, Supervisory Assistant Public Defender Elizabeth Reid, said she could not comment because she has not yet reviewed the arrest with McDowell.
McDowell's arrest marks the first time Norwalk Board of Education Vice Chairman Glenn Iannaccone has heard of someone facing criminal charges for sending their child to Norwalk schools.
"This is the first time I have heard something like this where there has been an arrest. Other allegations like this have been handled by the central office. I'm not sure if the police have been involved," Iannaccone said.
There is always speculation that students are attending Norwalk schools from outside the district, Iannaccone said, and the school system hires private investigators to look into the allegations.
"Maybe this is the district's way of cracking down on this," he said.
A call for comment to schools Superintendent Dr. Susan Marks was not immediately returned.
Norwalk Board of Education Chairman Jack Chiaramonte expressed surprise at McDowell's arrest and the investigation that led to it.
"I don't get that at all," Chiaramonte said. "Usually when they find a kid out of district, they send him back. I have never heard of people being arrested for it, but I am not sure of the law. For my understanding, whenever we find someone from another district we send them back."
Mayor Richard Moccia said that he was aware that an investigation was proceeding in the case and that an arrest was possible.
"This now sends a message to other parents that may have been living in other towns and registering their kids with phony addresses," he said.
While Moccia said it was sad the case involves a woman who appears to be homeless, he pointed out that if she had been living at the Norwalk shelter and registered her child there she would not be facing charges now.
While he would not divulge whether more cases like this are now being readied for criminal prosecution, Moccia said, as budgets get tighter, efforts to identify out-of-district students will intensify.
"I think there is a more concerted effort to identify and question and if necessary go to the final link to arrest," Moccia said. "But nobody wants to arrest mothers and fathers."
Norwalk defense attorney Michael Corsello, who several years ago represented a woman charged with first-degree larceny for sending her children to Weston schools while living at the Hi-Ho Motel in Fairfield, said he wondered why authorities chose to make McDowell the example.
"There are some people where you could effect restitution through the criminal justice system. If the woman is homeless then restitution probably is not possible," said Corsello, who is also employed by Norwalk schools as an expulsion hearing officer.
"I am surprised that this is the case they chose to make an example of," Corsello said. "Obviously, doing this will have a deterring effect on others doing the same thing, but you would think they could get similar evidence on someone with more ability to pay restitution."
because at first I thought this was simply an onion article. But it turns out this actually is 100% real. And beyond fucking terrible. So that's why I posted the full article because it needs to be read. It seriously needs to be seen and we all need to drop our jaws in disbelief that this is actually happening.
So this woman stayed at a homeless shelter from time to time that puts her son in the correct district, but since she wrote a different address on a form so obviously she deserved prison time and a fine she can't ever possibly pay.
It's pretty clear that poors aren't even considered people anymore. There's objectively no reason to not kill everyone worth more than $1 million dollars. I guess the only problem that comes up is if it's counter productive to advocate genocide of the human species when the reason for it is injustice against humanity. Either way, I'm advocating genocide.
The biggest flaw against death to all humanity is it would kill the global poor and first world third class first. Rich folks would die far later than the rest. Though that shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone.
I'm left wondering why I do this to myself. This knowledge in no way makes anyone happier, least of all me. Nor does it change anything for anyone. If anything, this just reminds me to never feel happy for even a moment because the sad reality is that something like this is happening somewhere in this world every moment of every day.
Do you recall not too long ago there was a story about the mother who sent her kid to the "wrong school" and ended up getting locked up for it? Yeah, it seems like this is the wave of the future. Our school system is shitty beyond belief, but hey we're going to fight tooth and nail to make sure we keep out the poors.
But hey, I should be able to admit that this story got me really sad, but later I realized that the woman in this story turned out to be black and man, that sad feeling still remained, but at least now I wasn't AS surprised by this whole thing.
Unmentioned in the article is the unabashedly inequitable fashion in which schools receive funding, although this is the fundamental source of the woman's "crime". Even though school funding has pretty much no correlation to school performance. The problem is that schools in areas of concentrated poverty can't hope to raise student performance no matter how much Title I funding they receive when their student's biggest worry is where their next meal is coming from.
So we have to ask, why isn't there a pitchfork-wielding mob running this DA out of town? What kind of fucked up community would allow a prosecutor to get away with this? Because we're all numb to this shit. It's not like this is isolated of incidents.
It's just another day in a world where the homeless get imprisonment that shares itself with one where abandoned children only get humiliation:
Under a new budget proposal from State Sen. Bruce Casswell, children in the state’s foster care system would be allowed to purchase clothing only in used clothing stores.
Casswell, a Republican representing Branch, Hillsdale, Lenawee and St. Joseph counties, made the proposal this week, reports Michigan Public Radio.
Under his plan, foster children would receive gift cards that could only be used at places like the Salvation Army, Goodwill and other second hand clothing stores.
Sure, you could probably find clothing that fits you properly in a thrift store, but you know, that would require striking some luck (what poor people have little of), and have plenty of time to actually shop around (another thing poor people have little of)
So who is behind all this? Let me quote the original article once again in one aspect that I can't shake feeling is truly evil in every possible way.
"This now sends a message to other parents that may have been living in other towns and registering their kids with phony addresses."
That there is Norwalk mayor Richard Moccia. Please send all your negative vibes and possible death threats to that man. He deserves every last one of them.
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