A Wrong Way to the Right Idea?

It is a generally accepted ideology that parents typically want better for their children than they had for themselves. We hope we can save them from making our mistakes. We hope we can teach them to learn when they make their own.

We try to provide for our kids. Healthy eating habits, good study skills, a decent education; we want all of these things and more for our kids. One Ohio mom had the same idea.

So she lied about her address to get her kids into a better school. According to the strictest of moral codes that is wrong. But would you lie to ensure that your kids got into a better school? Even her father was charged with a fourth degree felony in this case (although it was a mistrial). Would you help your adult children lie to the state if it meant better and greater opportunities for your grand kids?

Whether or not you believe what she did was right or wrong, this particular GeekMom feels the punishment was too harsh. (I don’t speak for the rest of the GeekMom staff, this is just me.) She was studying to be a teacher and was charged with a felony. That felony means she can never teach in the state of Ohio, or in my state, Oklahoma, for that matter. Many states do not allow felons to teach in the classroom and for good reason. I’ll keep my opinions on her actions to myself, but to charge her with a felony, under the full knowledge that it would strip her of the opportunity (potentially the only opportunity) to earn the right and means to actually put her kids in the better school was excessive. If punishment was necessary couldn’t it have been backed down to community service, a few nights in jail, and a misdemeanor with no chance to expunge? I mean, really. Was it necessary to ensure that the poor woman stays down, stays poor, stays doomed because she wanted to better her children’s lives?

I’ve been at the bottom of the barrel. If I’m being honest, I could stretch my leg and point my toe and probably still touch it. I’ve only risen above it because of the help and support of both my family and total strangers who reached out and helped pull me up. So I give you the opportunity to be this woman’s total stranger with outstretched hand…Change.org has posted a petition to have her pardoned of the felony charge.