Arrest Made In Acoff Case

Thanks to Zoe Renee Lapin, I was happy to find out from her that the Olmsted Township, OH po-po's have made an arrest in the Cemia Dove Acoff case.   

What I'm NOT happy about is the continued blatant violations of the AP Stylebook trans reporting guidelines by the stenographers at the Cleveland Plain Dealer and their ongoing disrespect of my young trans sister that is setting the tone for the jacked up coverage of this case by the Cleveland area media.  

Since they have basically lapsed into a 'we don't care' attitude concerning how to write a story that properly reflects the AP Stylebook and respects Cemia without erasing her trans identity, I'm going to show the stenographers there how it's done 

(Moni cracks knuckles)

***
OLMSTED TOWNSHIP -- A Parma man was arrested this morning (May 4) for the murder of Cemia Dove Acoff, the 20-year-old transgender woman whose body was found in a pond on Mackenzie Road April 17.


Andre L. Bridges, 36, is being held in Olmsted Township jail following his arrest by Olmsted Township police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation Fugitive Task Force.

Acoff was reported missing by her family in late March, and her body was found by a resident who lives in the apartment next to the retention pond. There were multiple stab wounds on her body, and a chain and a concrete block were attached to her waist.

There is still an active investigation going on with this case, according to Olmsted Township Police Chief John Minek.

***

See Cleveland Plain Dealer how easy that was?    If you had done that from the beginning, you would have saved yourself a lot of unnecessary drama unless that was your intention in the first place.

But at this point happy to see that the alleged perpetrator of this crime has been captured.   My Cleveland trans peeps and their allies will be keeping a close eye on this case and watching it to see that Cemia and her family gets justice.

Rally For CeCe Acoff

The rally for Ce Ce Acoff in Cleveland that was organized by Zoe Lapin got moved to the steps of Cleveland 's City Hall yesterday on a gorgeous spring day with the trans flag flying from the City hall flag post.  

The rally was covered by several news stations who sadly continue to use the mug shot and other unflattering photo of Cemia and misgender her.

In addition to Zoe being one of the speakers for the rally that started at 3 PM EDT, another one was Cleveland City Council member Joe Cimperman, who has called the murder a hate crime.. 

Cemia lived a trouble life of acceptance,” said Councilmember Cimperman in a

news release on Wednesday. “While Cemia struggled, she did not deserve to die as what is likely a hate crime. Too often we lose loved ones because of fear or hate. Violence should not be tolerated against anyone regardless of race, gender identity, gender expression or sexual orientation.”

If I find any video of the event I'll add it to the post...

Y'all Must Think We're Stupid, Cleveland Plain Dealer

When GLAAD, HRC, a host of other allied LGBT organizations, people in the trans community from Cleveland, Ohio, around the nation and the world tell you that the two transphobic articles you wrote in the Cemia Acoff case are deeply offensive, it would stand to reason that you would at least change them. 

Here we are three days later and the offensive headlines and paragraphs in the two awful hate crime stories penned by John Caniglia are STILL there.

And no, these two stories aren't even close to meeting AP standards for reporting on trans people. If you think Cleveland Plain Dealer we didn't notice the little stunt you pulled, just advising you we transfolks have above average reading comprehension.

And it's why you're getting called out on this in the first place.  

Bloggers by simply talking to people in the Cleveland trans community quickly established that Ms Acoff's name is Cemia.   From that we found pictures on her Facebook page.   Another friend of Cemia's created the RIP Ce Ce graphic that is up on my blog so I don't need to put up the mug shots that you disrespectfully continue to keep up on those two jacked up posts.

And you think we didn't notice you:

* Still have those jacked up titles for both articles
* Still kept the mugshots in both articles
* Still refuse to excise the criminal record that is not germane to the story
* Still are refusing to refer to Cemia as she, with female pronouns or as a transgender female.
* Still refuse to use her chosen name as part of the AP Stylebook guidelines you claim to have followed. 

Digging your heels in and hoping this will blow over is only serving to piss off the Cleveland, Ohio, US and  international trans communities, along with our allies in the United States and around the world.  

With each passing hour you continue to look like transphobic jerks for not doing the right thing and simply making the edits to the stories that will treat Cemia with the dignity that you stripped her of.

And if you think posting at the bottom of the offending article that you 'amended' it to comply with AP Stylebook standards, I have waterfront property along I-10 between Breaux Bridge and Baton Rouge, LA in the Atchafalaya Swamp I'd like to sell you

I could go on, but I'll let Dr. Kelley Winters give you her take on your wastes of bandwith articles.

The barely edited article is not at all within the AP Stylebook guidelines.

It states, "Transgender: Use the pronoun preferred by the individuals who have acquired the physical characteristics of the opposite sex or present themselves in a way that does not correspond with their sex at birth. If that preference is not expressed, use the pronoun consistent with the way the individuals live publicly."

The language in Caniglia and Corrigan's article is only somewhat more gender neutral and nowhere respectful of Ms. Acoff as a woman who lived, died and publicly identified as a woman (a point the authors sensationalized, regarding her arrest because she affirmed herself as a woman to transit police).

Male pronouns remain in paragraph 3-- one in a quote and another not in a quoted statement. Hormonal transition care is maligned for all transgender and transsexual people as "dangerous drugs." The authors make a point to ridicule the underwear she wore when she died, a humiliation they would never inflict on a person of privilege. Ms. Acoff is described throughout the article as more criminal than her murderer(s).

The authors depict the victim with a mug shot, rather than a respectful photo of the young woman she was ( http://tinyurl.com/chgevw5 ).

While sensationalizing her past petty infractions, the authors neglect to mention whether the police have a suspect or are even investigating her death as a murder. This article typifies the victim bashing and stereotyping that so many transgender women, especially trans women of color, suffer in the media. It is a disgrace to journalism.

And hey, Dr. Winters was nice to you.   I called it a 'journalistic hate crime' and stand by what I wrote in light of seeing the 'frack you' half azzed edits you did. 

You can circle the wagons to shield yourselves from the caca storm your articles and disrespect of Ce Ce Acoff touched off all you want, but memo to you Cleveland Plain Dealer, John Caniglia and everybody else whose transphobic fingerprints are on this.  We aren't stupid, and the trans community isn't letting up or letting go on this blatant disrepect of a deceased transwoman. 

Neither am I until you address the problems in those articles because it's transpeeps who look like me that are taking the brunt of these hate crime killings along with trans Latinas.

It's fouled up stories like this that create the climate for people to think it's okay to kill transpeople in the first place.

Ce Ce Acoff Rally Today At 3 PM

For those of you in the Cleveland metro area there will be a rally for our fallen trans sister Cemia Dove 'Ce Ce' Acoff  later today in Cleveland's Willard Park.

The rally is being organized by local DJ Zoe Renee Lapin and will start at 3 PM EDT.  If you need further information about it get in contact with Zoe for further details about the rally.  

I hope you peeps in the area spread the word and can attend it, and here's hoping that we'll have allies and respectful media coverage there as well 

And speaking of respectful media coverage, still pushing for that to happen in this case, so stay on the Plain Dealer and the local TV stations and demand it.  They exist to serve the people in the Cleveland area, not the other way around.

TransGriot Update:  Rally was moved to the step of Cleveland's City Hall

Acoff Murder Updates

As I continue to get details about this senseless killing from people in the area, I'll post them to the blog.

Thanks to several readers, have discovered that the femme name for our fallen Cleveland sister that will be used in TransGriot stories from now on was Cemia Dove.  Cemia was also called Ce Ce by her friends and the people whose lives she touched in her all to brief 20 years on this planet.

Cleveland DJ Zoe Renee Lapin (and girl like us) was in the process organizing a rally in memory of Ce Ce.   The rally will be tomorrow May 1 at Willard Park in Cleveland at 3 PM EDT, so for any further details about this event get in contact with Zoe. 

I'm asking if anyone has nice pictures of Ce Ce, please send them to me or post them somewhere like Facebook so we trans bloggers can use something other than a mug shot for her.   That article was bad enough.   I don't want to participate (and neither do my fellow trans bloggers) in indirectly heaping more disprect on her by having the only photo of her be a fracking mug shot.

And for you peeps in the Cleveland area still pissed about not only the murder but the journalistic hate crime that happened after it, what you may wish to do is what the New York and Los Angeles trans communities did after their papers of record printed jacked up articles about deceased transpeople and refused or were recalcitrant about retracting or correcting them.

New York and Los Angeles are media centers that have GLAAD offices in both cities, so meetings were set up with their local papers of record to express their displeasure with their trans news coverage in New York and Los Angeles and suggest concrete steps to correct them.  

My suggestion to you trans peeps and allies in the Cleveland area since you don't have a GLAAD office there like the New York and LA trans communities did to help coordinate the meetings is you get in contact with your local and statewide TBLG orgs, the local NAACP chapter, your Cleveland city councilmembers, Ohio state reps and Ohio state senators, US Congressmember Marcia Fudge (D), your US Senator Sherrod Brown (D) over Ce Ce's murder and have them help you get that meeting with the Plain Dealer.  

Once you get the meeting to discuss with the Plain Dealer's managers, editors and the stenographers Caniglia and Corrigan the horrible coverage of the Ce Ce Acoff story, you point out the problems and how hurtful and triggering it was to the local, national and international trans community. 

You also get the Plain Dealer to commit to from this day forward to making immediate and long term corrections in the way they write trans stories up to and including hiring an openly trans reporter.  

Following the AP Stylebook guidelines on covering transpeople would be a mandatory minimum standard so that journalistic hate crimes like the Acoff story don't happen again to another Cleveland area trans person.  

That would be one way to honor Ce Ce's memory and ensure something positive comes out of this for the Cleveland area and Ohio trans community.

Another Black Transwoman Dies In Ohio And Is Disrespected In The Local Media

First the details of the third African-American transwoman this month to die too soon at the hands of a murderer, then I go Maya Wilkes concerning the over the top transphobic 'reporting' of  Cleveland Plain Dealer stenographers (they don't deserve the title of reporter) John Caniglia and Jo Ellen Corrigan

20 year old C. Acoff (I refuse to use the old name because this sistah has been disrespected enough) from Cleveland was found April 17 in a retention pond on MacKenzie Road, north of Cook Road, in Olmsted Township, OH nude from the waist down.  She was stabbed multiple times tied with a rope to a block of concrete

The body was found at 3:30 PM EDT by a renter living in an apartment building on the 20 acre property in the township. Acoff had been missing since March 27 and the body did match a previously filed missing person's report with the Cleveland Police Department.on April 19. 


Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's office positively identified through DNA on Monday

Police are looking for the wastes of DNA who committed the crime.

Now that I've gotten the basics out of the way, lets talk about the journalistic hate crime that was just committed against Ms. Acoff.  Caniglia and Corrigan must have read this TransGriot post because this is the worst piece of alleged reporting on a trans murder I've seen in a while.  

Misgender the person at every opportunity?  Check
Use police mugshot?  Check
Drag old criminal record into the story?  Check
'Deception meme' injected into story?    Check
'Tragic transsexual' meme injected into this story?   Check
Use salacious and sensationalist headlines?  Check
Not give a rats anus about the victim's dignity and their femme presentation?  Check
Disrespecting another African-American transwoman?   Check.

I am so fracking sick of African-American transwomen who have unfortunately been killed repeatedly being disrespected by predominately white reporters.  Would you have done a story on a white cis female murder victim that way?   Would you have used a mug shot or plastered her criminal record all through a story reporting on her death?

No John Caniglia and Jo Ellen Corrigan, you damned sure would not have disrespected a white cis female murder victim that way even if she had a criminal record.  You probably would have left it out of the story or your editor would have done so before publication.

But you (and your editor) felt it was okay to disrespect Ms Acoff  in that jacked up manner. Is it because you and your editor actually hate transwomen?   If you don't, the two articles you wrote sure do leave readers (especially in the trans community) with the impression that you don't care about or think transwomen, and especially African-American transwomen don't deserve dignity even in death.

You damned sure left no room for doubt to local, national and international trans readers and our allies how you felt or whether you even cared about the victim.   It's also apparent you weren't concerned how these stories would be perceived by a community who is beyond sick and tired of being sick and tired of being dissed in the media.  

I'm even more pissed off about this journalistic hate crime because this is the third African-American transwoman who has been killed this month and the second who was disrespected by her local media outlet.

It's obvious you haven't heard of the AP Stylebook guidelines on how to RESPECTFULLY report on transgender people, so let's go over them shall we?

Transgender: Use the pronoun preferred by the individuals who have acquired the physical characteristics of the opposite sex or present themselves in a way that does not correspond with their sex at birth.   

If that preference is not expressed, use the pronoun consistent with the way the individuals live publicly.

These guidelines have been in effect since 2001, so I'd love to hear your excuses for how not one but TWO transphobic stories you signed your name to (and your editor allowed) got published. 

Better yet, talk to GLAAD about why you did it.  I'm sure they'll be calling soon to ask why.


TransGriot Update.  Thanks to TransGriot readers Jahaira, Zoe and Lilith found out Ms Acoff's femme name is Cemia Dove.  Friends called her Ce Ce.   Found the new picture of Ce Ce gracing this article on Ce Ce's Facebook page.

Black Trans History-Philecia Barnes

Black transpeople aren't strangers in having to fight tooth and nail for our human rights.   We know from our history as African descendants in America we've had to rely on the courts at times to secure those human rights.   Some cases we've trans African-Americans have engaged in we've won, some we've lost.  But they have done their part to keep the momentum of trans human rights moving forward.

Here's another one of those cases from our history book, and this one takes place in Cincinnati, OH.   Philecia Barnes was a Cincinnati police officer for over two decades before beginning her gender transition and taking the sergeant's exam and passing it on July 13, 1998.    She placed 18th out of 105 candidates who took that examination.

You would think that having placed inside the Top 20 of people who took the exam she'd have a great chance at the promotion combined with her two decades of experience as a patrol officer.   But it was well known in the CPD that Barnes was transitioning and had notified CPD of her intention to do so well before taking that exam.   She was then subjected to a stressful three-month probationary period as a sergeant, during which time she was monitored on a daily basis, forced to wear a mike, and rated on a six-page form designed specifically for her. At the end, she failed because of what was termed a lack of 'command presence' and was demoted in June 1999 on the orders of then Cincinnati Police Chief Thomas Streicher.   

But Barnes also had warning signs that something shady was going on.   Col. Twitty told Barnes she did not appear to be “masculine,” and that she needed to stop wearing makeup and act more masculine prior to Barnes's promotion.  Col. Twitty stated the objective of such statements was to correct Barnes's “grooming deficiencies.”  Col. Twitty also claimed that the decision to fail Barnes from probation had nothing to do with Barnes's transsexual characteristics.  

However, Sergeant Ford warned Barnes that he heard rumors that Barnes was going to fail probation because Barnes had not been acting masculine enough.   It was also interesting to note that Barnes was the only officer to fail probation during the seven years from 1993 to 2000, according to court papers or be placed in a training program similar to what Barnes endured.   

So what happens when you feel you've been treated unjustly?   You sue, which Barnes did in October 2000.
     
At the heart of the Barnes case was the question of whether this country's main federal law against workplace discrimination, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, protects transgender workers (and tangentially, gay workers) against sex discrimination.  Neither "transgender" nor "sexual orientation" appears in the text of Title VII, which bars job bias because of religion, race, sex and other factors.

But in 1989, the Supreme Court in Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins ruled that an employer who punishes a worker because he or she does not match gender stereotypes is guilty of sex discrimination under Title VII.   This case was being cited by more courts deferring to the Hopkins precedent in favor of gay and transgender plaintiffs.  It was cited in the 2012 Mia Macy v Holder EEOC case that ruled transgender discrimination is sex discrimination.

Barnes challenged her demotion from sergeant under Title VII and the Equal Protection Clause in a case she filed with the US District Court for Southern District of Ohio in addition to taking legal aim at the odious Article XII of the Cincinnati City Charter.  

Article XII was passed by voters in 1993 as a homobigoted reaction to the city’s human rights ordinance including sexual orientation as a protected class against discrimination in 1992.   Barnes and her attorney Al Gerhartstein asserted that Article XII was a factor in this case because its existence encouraged supervisors to discriminate against his client and others based on sexual orientation.

Barnes also told the judge during the district court trial that as long as Article XII existed, she and others would continue to face discrimination.

The City of Cincinnati filed a motion to dismiss and a motion for summary judgment, which were both denied by the district court.   The City argued that a legitimate reason, poor performance, justified the demotion in this case.   The claims were submitted to a district court jury, which returned a verdict in Barnes's favor.   The jury on February 23, 2003 awarded Barnes $150,000 in compensatory damages, $140,000 in front pay and $30,511 in back pay.   The City moved for judgment as a matter of law, which was also rejected by the district court.  The district court then awarded Barnes $527,888 in attorneys fees and $25,837 in costs on February 27, 2004.  

The city of Cincinnati promptly appealed the adverse district court rulings to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.  It has the reputation of being the most conservative leaning federal judicial circuit in the nation, but Barnes' case was upheld on March 22, 2005.    The Sixth Circuit agreed that Barnes had a legitimate claim of sex discrimination under Title VII. It was the second such ruling out of the Sixth Circuit, where a transgender fire fighter won the right to sue under Title VII in the July 2004 Smith v. City of Salem case.

The City of Cincinnati then appealed the Barnes case to the US Supreme Court, but on November 7, 2005  they declined to review it, which meant the ruling in Barnes favor at the Sixth Circuit level stands.   

In March 2006, the City of Cincinnati repealed the discriminatory Article XII, then passed on an 8-1 vote an anti-discrimination ordinace that added sexual orientation and gender identity to it.

So you can thank Sgt Barnes on two levels.   You can thank her for standing up for her rights and as a result of her win establishing another trans employment friendly legal precedent that happened in a conservative federal circuit.   You can also thank her for striking the legal blow that took down Cincinnati's discriminatory Article XII.

Arrest In Hampton Murder Case

Needed to give your TransGriot readers an update in the Kendall Hampton case, the 26 year old transwoman who was shot and killed in the Cincinnati metro area suburb of Walnut Hills, OH last August. and subsequently misgendered and disrespected by the local media.

There is news on the justice front for Ms. Hampton.  19 year old Eugene Carlos Dukes was arrested in September and has been indicted on murder charges by a Hamilton County, Ohio Grand Jury.

As I get the details concerning trail dates, the status of the case and the eventual verdict I will pass them along to you

Ohio Handling Its Early Voting Electoral Business

Umm Republifools, this is probably your worst nightmare unfolding with lines of pissed off African-Americans and other voters waiting for the early voting centers to open at 8 AM EDT.

Ohio State Senator Nina Turner (D-Cleveland) was on The Ed Show last night camping out in front of one of the locations in Cuyahoga County giving another one of her fiery and inspirational speeches dropping much historical knowledge about how much we've had to struggle just to be able to cast a ballot.. 

Looking forward to seeing her in Congress, the US Senate or a larger statewide office in Ohio one day..





The 44 year old state senator has been a frequent guest on MSNBC shows calling out the voter suppression efforts in Ohio   

"Never did I think I would live to see the day Jim Crow was resurrected, making repeat appearances in the South. And he has packed his bags, and he has moved North. Something is wrong."

Yep, something is most definitely wrong, and thanks Sen. Turner for being a vocal champion that frequently calls out the jacked up Jim Crow 2.0 GOP voter suppression efforts in Ohio. 
 
Now it's up to you voters in Ohio to let the GOP know how displeased you are about it by handling your electoral business, helping President Obama win the state and dealing a fatal blow to Romney's chances of winning this presidential election since no Republican has ever won the White House without your state's electoral votes..

Hampton Case in Ohio Update

I posted last week about the Hampton trans murder case in Ohio and my pissivity over the almost immediate deployment of the Black trans unwoman meme' in the initial reports by several Cincinnati media outlets.  

The local media in addition to immediately misgendering her, assumed Hampton was engaged in sex work, which pissed me off still further

Well, interestingly enough, there's a story that came out yesterday in GLBTNewsCincinnati.com by Worley Rodehaver about this latest trans murder based on an interview with a person purported to be a relative of Hampton's named Terri.

According to the article, Hampton had just had a fistfight with a transphobe who called her names, and the cismale she vanquished was being teased by other males for being beat up by a 'fag'.

Terri says another female relative was with Hampton and went inside a carryout.   Sometime during that period she was in the carryout Hampton was shot, and as we are aware of later died after being taken to the hospital

Terri is also quoted in the article as saying about Hampton “He always had to fight (literally) because of who he was. He lived in a bad area of town around young males who are in gangs and sell drugs.” 

“What I am concerned about is the State of Ohio does not have any Hate Crime Laws regarding sexual orientation or gender identity.”  Terri concluded, “I hope the Cincinnati Police Department will find this person/s and bring them to justice. 

Terri, that's the same thing we transpeople are hoping and praying for as well, that your relative get justice. 

Another thing we African-American transwomen are hoping for is the media actually pays attention to and starts consistently using the AP Stylebook guidelines on respectfully reporting on trans people.   

We transwomen of color are extremely sick and tired of the first words coming out of your media mouths when we are unfortunately killed and you report the stories is making the assumption filled and racist leap that we are engaged in sex work

You know the old saying about when you assume.

But it's more like you're making azzes out of yourselves, not the transperson you disrespected. . 

Ohio, Handle Your Electoral Business

While we get busy in Houston in a few hours electing our mayor and city council members, the folks in Ohio will be going to the polls to vote on whether to kill SB5, the Republican created bill that bans collective bargaining for public employees among it's other odious anti-worker provisions

In summary, here are the provisions of  SB 5:

• Bargaining: Expands the topics that management can refuse to negotiate with public employees. Those topics include: employee qualifications, work assignments and staffing levels. According to reports, public employees can still bargain for wages and hours.

• Strikes: Strikes would be banned, along with a deduction of "an amount equal to twice the employee's daily rate of pay" for each day an employee is considered to be on strike.

• Performance pay and sick/vacation leave: Currently, the minimum amount for a teacher to be paid is $17,300. This would be undone by the law, replacing this by implementing a pay by performance provision. Sick leave would be reduced from three weeks a year to two. Vacation leave would be capped to five weeks a year.

• Union fees: Public employees would not have to pay union fees if they do not want to be become a union member. This was a condition of employment before Senate Bill 5.

• Governing bodies and contract disputes: The governing body of a city, school, or township would have the final say on any contract disputes that initially become unresolved.

• Charter schools: Employees of charter schools would not be allowed to collectively bargain. The only exception, according to reports, would be conversion charter schools.

The bill was bumrushed through a Republican majority Ohio legislature not long after they regained control of it after the 2010 midterm elections.  SB 5 so angered people in the Buckeye State that 1,298,301 signatures were collected to place it on the ballot to be repealed when they were only required to collect 231,149 valid signatures

The repeal question is on the ballot as Ohio Question 2, and Ohio residents will have to vote NO to kill the odious SB 5.   In the last poll taken indications are that's probably going to happen by a 59%-36% double digit margin despite the late flurry of corporate money , right wing cash and Faux News appearances by former employee and current Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) to turn the tide for the Greed Is Good Forces.

But the coalition working to repeal SB5 is not taking anything for granted and are still working hard on their GOTV efforts and making sure the hard work they did this summer to collect those signatures isn't in vain.

Hoping we hear good news out of Ohio when the polls close later today.

Kelley Williams-Bolar Sentence Reduced

Tuesday was the first day of school in Canada and many areas of the United States so it was indeed fitting that Kelley Williams-Bolar had her felony convictions for sending her kids to a safer and better performing school district reduced to misdemeanors.  

The Akron, OH mother was in the news back in January for being convicted and sent to jail for nine days for wanting to send her children to the suburban Copley-Fairlawn district in which her father lived and using her father's address to do so.

Ohio Governor John Kasich (R) overrode a September 2 Ohio Parole Board decision in which they unanimously and callously voted to recommend the governor not parole her for falsifying documents so her daughters could attend school in the better ranked suburban district instead of the Akron one.

She was working as a teaching assistant in the Akron district and studying at the University of Akron to become a special needs teacher, and the felonies would derail her chances to get her teaching certificate.

The unfairness of the sentence galvanized The Tom Joyner Morning Show, Change.org  and Color of
Change.org to mount a petition drive that garnered over 180,000 signatures seeking to secure a pardon for Ms. Williams-Bolar..  When the word of the negative parole board hearing got out, mobilized TJMS listeners and supporters around the country flooded the offices of Governor Kasich with calls..

Gov. Kasich overruled the Ohio Pardons Board and said in a statement:  :When I first heard about this situation, it seemed to me the penalty was excessive for the offense," Kasich said "In addition, the penalty could exclude her from certain economic opportunities for the rest of her life. So today, I've reduced those felony convictions to what I think are more appropriate, first-degree misdemeanors. No one should interpret this as a pass - it's a second chance."

“Right now Kelley is ecstatic,” said David Singleton, a lawyer with the Ohio Justice Institute who represented Williams-Bolar.

“Now that this is not hanging over her head, she can resume her studies at the University of Akron and continue working toward becoming a teacher,” Singleton told BlackAmericaWeb.com.

Williams-Bolar also called the TJMS this morning along with her attorney to thank the listeners of the show for their support of her.  

Justice finally prevailed for Ms Williams-Bolar.   But the imbalance of funding between urban and suburban school districts in many states, the disparity in education between districts, and the diffence in education policy between Democrats who support public schools and Republicans who don't will continue to be a contentious issue into the future.