Judge: Woman in school case not close to teaching

COLUMBUS (AP) — An Ohio judge says a woman jailed for using her father’s address to enroll her children in a different school district was not on the verge of becoming a teacher herself, as she claimed during her trial.

Judge Patricia Cosgrove of Summit County Common Pleas Court tells The Columbus Dispatch that Kelley Williams-Bolar, of Akron, was “nowhere near getting her teacher’s license.” The judge says her view is supported by school records, which will be presented during Williams-Bolar’s upcoming clemency hearing.

Williams-Bolar was found guilty in Cosgrove’s court of falsifying documents in the school residency matter, a conviction that threatens her hopes of obtaining a teaching license. She spent nine days in jail.

An attorney for Williams-Bolar says she has completed 119 hours of study toward a teaching career.