43
Al Sharpton’s group supports woman in dispute over Boardman enrollment
Photo
The Rev. Al Sharpton (Brad Barket | Brad Barket/PictureGroup via AP IMAGES)
BOARDMAN
A national civil-rights organization is rallying around a Valley woman accused of falsifying records to send her children to Boardman schools.
The National Action Network was founded by the Rev. Al Sharpton and has numerous local chapters, including one in Solon. The organization is supporting DeJeanine Brockman, 31, who police charged Feb. 11 with falsification and tampering with records.
Brockman pleaded not guilty to the misdemeanor falsification charge and had a hearing on the felony tampering with records charge Feb. 15. She will appear in Mahoning County Court in Boardman at 10 a.m. March 29 for a pre-trial. Brockman is free on a $9,500 bond.
“We’re actively investigating this case because this stinks to high heaven,” said Richard Jones, Midwest representative for the National Action Network.
The network wants to have a rally in support of Brockman as early as March 7, Jones said.
The network has raised questions about why the school resource officer, Sgt. Chuck Hillman, began investigating Brockman.
Boardman Police Chief Jack Nichols explained how the investigative process began.
“The owner of a home for sale on Erskine [Avenue] was receiving mail addressed to [Brockman]. Officers came to find out that [Brockman] had enrolled her children in the school by using that address and actually had displayed a lease. Upon checking, it was determined that she had never lived or rented there,” Nichols said.
Police said the date of the offense goes back to September, when paperwork with the Erskine address was given to the school, and that they do believe Brockman was not living in the township at that time.
Brockman was arrested this month at her home on Centervale Avenue — a Boardman address — for those charges.
“The whole thing was reviewed with the prosecutor prior to the filing of charges. If people have a complaint, I’m more than happy to listen,” Nichols said. “If we have to do an internal investigation, we’re more than happy to do that.”
The network also expressed concern that the school resource officer is not a school employee.
“What right did the officer have to harass her?” Jones said.
Nichols explained, however, that the school district and township have an agreement that goes back to June 2006 and provides for automatic renewal.
The schools did pay the township for the school resource officer’s service for one year, but for the last three years, the resource officer was funded by a grant between $12,000 and $15,000 from the state attorney general’s office, he added.
Hillman is “assigned to be up there,” Nichols said.
Police said Brockman has six children, five of whom are school-age and attend Boardman schools.
When Brockman was arrested, police said her children were still attending Boardman schools because they now live in the township. The investigation is continuing, Hillman said.
Police also said Brockman has a warrant out of Michigan for probation violation related to welfare fraud.
Sharpton spoke at a rally in Akron Feb. 17. He said the punishment for a 40-year-old mother of two children did not fit her crime.
The woman was found guilty of tampering with records by using her father’s address to claim residency status that allowed her children to go an outside school district. She spent nine days in jail for the crime.