Kelley Williams-Bolar Released from Jail

Kelley Williams-Bolar
photo by Phil Masturzo

Kelley Williams-Bolar, the Akron, Ohio woman handed a felony conviction for sending her children to a school outside her district (but to the district where she grew up, where her father still lives and where her children lived for a time) was released from jail Wednesday morning after serving 9 days of a 10 day sentence.  She still must serve 3 years probation and because of the felony conviction, a cloud hangs over her ability to keep her assistant teaching license or gain the full teaching license that she is only a few credits away from attaining.

There has been a national outcry against the harsh and inexplicable prosecution and sentence.

This morning in the Akron Beacon Journal:

By Ed Meyer and Carol Biliczky, Beacon Journal staff writers


On the day Kelley Williams-Bolar walked out of the Summit County Jail, public outrage over her local school residency case went viral on Internet blogs, Facebook, the vast audience of New York City radio and ABC national news.


Williams-Bolar admitted in a brief telephone interview, hours after her release Wednesday morning, that she was so overwhelmed by the nationwide attention to her story, she could not put it into words.


''I'm just trying to get my head together,'' she said, repeating herself but unable to say anything more.


A jail official confirmed that Williams-Bolar, 40, was released about 10 a.m., after serving nine days of a 10-day sentence for improperly enrolling her children in Copley-Fairlawn schools.


Common Pleas Judge Patricia Cosgrove, who handled the four-day trial and sentencing, gave Williams-Bolar credit for one day of time served. It was derived from the day she was arrested and taken to jail on multiple felony charges in November 2009, court records show.