Williams-Bolar’s father, Edward L. Williams, was charged with a fourth-degree felony of grand theft, in which he and his daughter were charged with defrauding the school system for two years of educational services for their girls despite the fact that Edward Williams was a legal resident of the neighborhood. The court ruled that sending their children to the school was worth $30,500 in tuition, which Williams-Bolar was responsible for repaying. She asserts that although she became singled out, she was not the only parent at the school who had made the same decision.
“I knew the other people who were doing the same thing, one woman in particular. [When my story made the news] I knew she was scared to death, I knew she thought I was going to say something. She kind of distanced herself,” she says.
When Ohio governor John Kasich made the decision to reduce her sentence of ten days of jail time and changed felony charges to misdemeanors when swayed by the national outrage, Williams-Bolar’s luck appeared to have gotten better. More than 100,000 signatures were collected by Change.org and ColorofChange.org in support of her. According to Colorlines, Kasich went on to use Williams-Bolar’s case to highlight the need for more school choice options, like school vouchers, that allow students to leave the public school system.
However, although the news whirlwind died down slightly upon her release, hardship still circled Williams-Bolar and her family. Her father was still being held on charges relating to the investigation fueled by Williams-Bolar’s case, and he wound up losing his home and later dying while in prison in 2012.