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Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Al Sharpton Speaks Up for Mothers Fighting for Children’s Education | News | BET

Al Sharpton Speaks Up for Mothers Fighting for Children’s Education | News | BET

Al Sharpton Speaks Up for Mothers Fighting for Children’s Education

The civil rights activist supports those arrested for sending their children to an out-of-district school.

Posted: 06/07/2011 02:51 PM EDT
Filed Under NAACP

Al Sharpton

The Rev. Al Sharpton will speak at a local NAACP rally tonight in support of Tonya McDowell , a mother charged with illegally enrolling her son in a Norwalk, Connecticut, public school.

Sharpton says that he wants to "nip the trend in the bud" involving the arrests of Black mothers wrongly enrolling their children in school.

McDowell was arrested in Norwalk, Conn., after school officials found out that she was sending her child to a public school in an area in which she did not permanently live. She said that she was homeless at the time, but stayed at the Norwalk Emergency Shelter occasionally and that’s why she enrolled her six-year-old in the school. She is now facing more than $15,000 on charges of first-degree larceny and conspiracy to commit first-degree larceny for allegedly stealing.

She is currently out on bail but will return to court Wednesday. If found guilty, she would be forced to pay the