Tanya McDowell would go to jail again to ensure her son a great education, but she shouldn’t have to: https://t.co/fG14xdFkIa. #SchoolChoice
— Am Fed for Children (@SchoolChoiceNow) March 31, 2017
In 2012, we shared the story of Tanya McDowell. She was the Connecticut mother who was charged with first-degree larceny and conspiracy for “stealing her son’s education.” Prosecutors argued that McDowell stole money from taxpayers by sending her son to the wrong school district.
What was particularly interesting about McDowell’s case though was that she was homeless when she enrolled her son in kindergarten. So she used his babysitter’s address instead of the district where her last home was located. Later, McDowell was arrested at the Norwalk homeless shelter just as she finished her evening meal.
She was convicted and was sentenced to twelve years in prison.
As we reported, the twelve-year sentence included four counts of drug possession and sale charges. At the time of her arrest, people suspected that after the first five years, the remaining seven would be suspended.
Now, five years later, McDowell, 39, is a free woman. And she says she does not regret her decision.
In an interview with The Hour, McDowell said:
“I would still do it all over again because I haven’t been let down,” McDowell said Friday afternoon in one of her first interviews since being released from jail two years ago. “My son exceeded all of my expectations.”
During her incarceration, her son Andrew lived with his grandmother and attended Thomas Hooker Elementary School. There, he had perfect attendance and made the honor roll.
McDowell points to her mother as the catalyst behind her decision to fight to get Andrew properly schooling.
“That’s where I got it from. Education was big in my household. She picked up exactly where I left off. I couldn’t be more proud.”
McDowell says that she hopes the fight for her son has more wider reaching effects.
“I’m not only doing it for Andrew. I’m doing it for any other parent, any other child out there that has the potential to exceed and excel at a certain level and is just being deprived, period.”
She did just that. After McDowell’s case made national headlines, Connecticut Governor Dannel P. Malloy decriminalized the practice of sending your child to the wrong school district in 2013. But the change came too late for McDowell herself. At the time of her arrest, her actions were classified as a felony.
And though she was released from prison two years early, she still faces three years of probation and owes the city of Norwalk $6,500 in back tuition.
Today, McDowell works in the food industry as a chef. Her son attends Casimir Pulaski School and is still on the honor roll.
And McDowell says he’s appreciative of his mother’s sacrifice.
“My son’s… like ‘mommy you did all that for me?’” McDowell said. “Yeah,” she added, “but not only you … other people are going through the same thing … My kid got a lot of recognition because I stood for something. So I try to teach him: stand for something otherwise you’re going to fall for anything. If you see something that’s not right, you stand up and you stand behind that…
“A lot of people may think what I did was wrong,” she said, “but I don’t think it was wrong because not only did I stand up for you, but all of the other parents who never got arrested and aren’t paying restitution.”
Veronica Wells is the culture editor at MadameNoire.com. She is also the author of “Bettah Days.” You can follow her on Facebook and Twitter @VDubShrug.
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