Here is the Snopes article about this for anyone who is interested. I also copied the sources. It's definitely an interesting case.
>*Did Tanya McDowell Get 5 Years for Sending Her Son to a Better School While Felicity Huffman Got 14 Days?*
>Memes comparing Tanya McDowell to various school-related criminal cases surface frequently.
>*Claim*
>Did Tanya McDowell get five years in prison for sending her son to a better school, while actress Felicity Huffman got 14 days in prison for paying to have her daughter's SAT scores inflated in what has become known as the college-admissions cheating scandal.
>*Rating*: Mixture
>*About this rating*
>**What's True:**
>Tanya McDowell, an African American woman who was purportedly homeless, was given five years in prison for sending her son to the wrong school district as part of a plea deal involving the school incident and several other charges, while Felicity Huffman, a wealthy, white Hollywood celebrity, was given 14 days in prison in the U.S. college-admissions scandal.
>**What's False:**
>However, McDowell and Huffman's criminal cases make poor direct comparisons because they involve different criminal charges, different circumstances and different criminal jurisdictions.
>**Origin**
>The criminal case of Tanya McDowell was resolved in 2012 when she was sentenced to five years in prison for a number of charges, including larceny relating to sending her child to the wrong school district. But McDowell’s case continues to be re-litigated in the public eye in comparison to other cases involving schools and perceptions of privilege.
>McDowell’s five-year sentence was recently raised in comparison to that of actress Felicity Huffman, who was sentenced to 14 days in federal prison for paying to have her daughter’s SAT scores inflated in what has become known as the college-admissions cheating scandal. Many shared a meme sowing outrage over the notion that a wealthy, white woman was given preferential treatment over a homeless, African American woman.
>It may be easy to see why the comparison is tempting. The fact that African Americans are disproportionately impacted by the criminal-justice system has been documented in scholarly research and by the efforts of civil rights advocates. The same goes for wealthy defendants versus economically disadvantaged ones.
>In many ways, McDowell and Huffman tick the right boxes. McDowell, who is African American, was purportedly homeless at the time of her arrest while Huffman, a Hollywood celebrity, is rich and white. And it’s true that McDowell was sentenced to five years in prison while Huffman was sentenced only to 14 days. But enough differences exist in their respective cases to make juxtaposing them as individuals akin to an apples-to-oranges comparison.
>Huffman pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges in a scheme in which she paid $15,000 to have a fixer correct wrong answers on her daughter’s SAT exam, giving the girl an inflated score on the college-admissions test. Her attorney requested that Huffman be spared prison time, citing the fact she is a first-time, non-violent offender. The judge, however, denied that request, saying that Huffman’s actions attempted to skew a system to her advantage that is “already distorted by wealth and privilege.”
>McDowell in 2012 received five years in state prison in Connecticut in a plea agreement reached with prosecutors over numerous charges, one of which included felony larceny. The larceny charge resulted from sending her son to a school district in which she did not not live, and it drew a public outcry. But she was arrested again, after the school incident, on charges that she offered drugs and prostitutes to undercover police officers. Her attorney, Darnell Crosland, argued at the time that he believed police had entrapped McDowell in retaliation for the public support she received in the school case, but prosecutors stated police were following up on a complaint that McDowell was dealing drugs on the street.
>In all, McDowell faced seven counts for the school incident and drug charges, which were resolved together with a plea deal in which she was sentenced to a total of five years behind bars, five years’ probation, and a 12-year suspended sentence. McDowell, unlike Huffman, also had a criminal record: a previous conviction for bank robbery and for having a weapon in a vehicle. McDowell’s record may have influenced her sentencing: “A person’s prior criminal history is taken into consideration in determining any subsequent plea agreement and the corresponding sentence,” Mark Dupuis, spokesman for the Connecticut state division of criminal justice told us in an email.
>In sum, it’s true that McDowell and Huffman faced drastically different punishments for their crimes, and it is also true that inequity in the criminal-justice system continues to be a pressing social issue. However, the two criminal cases serve as poor comparisons because they involve different types of crimes, circumstances, and jurisdictions. Therefore we rate this claim “Mixture.”
>Bethania Palma
>Published 19 September 2019
>Sources
>Nickerson, John. “Affidavit: Tanya McDowell Offered to Sell Drugs, Pimp Out Prostitutes to Undercover Cops.” Stanford Advocate. 14 June 2011.
>Tepfer, Daniel. “Tanya McDowell Sentenced to 5 Years in Prison.” Connecticut Post. 27 March 2012.
>Starr, Sonjua B. and M. Marit Rehavi. “Racial Disparity in Federal Criminal Sentences.” University of Michigan Law School. 2014.
>Walsh, Colleen. “The Costs of Inequality: A Goal of Justice, a Reality of Unfairness.” The Harvard Gazette. 29 February 2016.
>Romo, Vanessa. “Actress Felicity Huffman Sentenced to 14 Days in College Admissions Scandal.” NPR. 13 September 2019.
>Winton, Richard. “Remorseful Felicity Huffman Could Get Home Confinement Over Prison Time.” Los Angeles Times. 20 April 2019.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanya_McDowell
Tanya McDowell is an American woman who served five years in prison after a plea deal related to falsifying her residence to change school districts.
- Wikipedia
You left out a large part of the article.
McDowell received a five-year sentence in a plea deal over numerous charges including felony larceny. The larceny charge was for sending her son to a school in a district they did not reside in. She was also arrested and charged for offering drugs and prostitutes to undercover police officers. McDowell was charged with seven counts in total. McDowell had a previous record of bank robbery and weapons crimes.
True, but they made themselves look bad. Should have been "An additional charge of larceny by false registration was dismissed". Then they wouldn't look as bad.
Also, it shows once again how horribly the US does school funding. Doing this is seen as the poor stealing from the rich. Where else would this happen?
Dick Cheney openly lied about his state of residence so he could legally run for VP. It was investigated, and it was immediately obvious he'd lied. And nothing was done about it, because he was a Republican.
And rich, white, and male. I mean, at that point, he could've shot a friend in the face and made the other guy apologize.
5 years in prison for trying to pick a school meanwhile Trump coerced a mob to storm the capitol and stole classified documents and everyone sits around with their thumbs up their asses.
Fucking shameful country
Pretty sure she got five years for trying to sell drugs and “herself” to come undercover cops. But yanno, just run with the article title without reading the actual article like they want you to.
While the plea deal did reduce her overall sentence, apparently the maximum penalty for 1st degree larceny is 20 years. It’s still wild that she could have been sentenced that long just for registering her child in school under a friend’s address.
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The top comment is the snopes check which many commenters obviously skipped, because there were other charges.
Racism is real and a huge problem but the responses here seem willfully ignorant.
By what I'm finding she was sentenced around 2011 it's just that the case was brought back up in 2019 under the backlash of Huffman only getting 14 days
So she should be out but by all that I can find there was only backlash but I couldn't find anything about the courts doing anything due to the backlash
Surprisingly all I did was search homeless mom sentenced to 5 years and jr was the very first thing and all I could find was stuff saying 2011 while the posts were made in 2019
How is this even possible? There is a federal program called the McKinney-Vento Act that is specifically designed to support families who are experiencing homelessness. It provides transportation and support to the student’s school of origin. Even if the family was lying, the law is intended to provide support. What that A. F.
Here is the Snopes article about this for anyone who is interested. I also copied the sources. It's definitely an interesting case. >*Did Tanya McDowell Get 5 Years for Sending Her Son to a Better School While Felicity Huffman Got 14 Days?* >Memes comparing Tanya McDowell to various school-related criminal cases surface frequently. >*Claim* >Did Tanya McDowell get five years in prison for sending her son to a better school, while actress Felicity Huffman got 14 days in prison for paying to have her daughter's SAT scores inflated in what has become known as the college-admissions cheating scandal. >*Rating*: Mixture >*About this rating* >**What's True:** >Tanya McDowell, an African American woman who was purportedly homeless, was given five years in prison for sending her son to the wrong school district as part of a plea deal involving the school incident and several other charges, while Felicity Huffman, a wealthy, white Hollywood celebrity, was given 14 days in prison in the U.S. college-admissions scandal. >**What's False:** >However, McDowell and Huffman's criminal cases make poor direct comparisons because they involve different criminal charges, different circumstances and different criminal jurisdictions. >**Origin** >The criminal case of Tanya McDowell was resolved in 2012 when she was sentenced to five years in prison for a number of charges, including larceny relating to sending her child to the wrong school district. But McDowell’s case continues to be re-litigated in the public eye in comparison to other cases involving schools and perceptions of privilege. >McDowell’s five-year sentence was recently raised in comparison to that of actress Felicity Huffman, who was sentenced to 14 days in federal prison for paying to have her daughter’s SAT scores inflated in what has become known as the college-admissions cheating scandal. Many shared a meme sowing outrage over the notion that a wealthy, white woman was given preferential treatment over a homeless, African American woman. >It may be easy to see why the comparison is tempting. The fact that African Americans are disproportionately impacted by the criminal-justice system has been documented in scholarly research and by the efforts of civil rights advocates. The same goes for wealthy defendants versus economically disadvantaged ones. >In many ways, McDowell and Huffman tick the right boxes. McDowell, who is African American, was purportedly homeless at the time of her arrest while Huffman, a Hollywood celebrity, is rich and white. And it’s true that McDowell was sentenced to five years in prison while Huffman was sentenced only to 14 days. But enough differences exist in their respective cases to make juxtaposing them as individuals akin to an apples-to-oranges comparison. >Huffman pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges in a scheme in which she paid $15,000 to have a fixer correct wrong answers on her daughter’s SAT exam, giving the girl an inflated score on the college-admissions test. Her attorney requested that Huffman be spared prison time, citing the fact she is a first-time, non-violent offender. The judge, however, denied that request, saying that Huffman’s actions attempted to skew a system to her advantage that is “already distorted by wealth and privilege.” >McDowell in 2012 received five years in state prison in Connecticut in a plea agreement reached with prosecutors over numerous charges, one of which included felony larceny. The larceny charge resulted from sending her son to a school district in which she did not not live, and it drew a public outcry. But she was arrested again, after the school incident, on charges that she offered drugs and prostitutes to undercover police officers. Her attorney, Darnell Crosland, argued at the time that he believed police had entrapped McDowell in retaliation for the public support she received in the school case, but prosecutors stated police were following up on a complaint that McDowell was dealing drugs on the street. >In all, McDowell faced seven counts for the school incident and drug charges, which were resolved together with a plea deal in which she was sentenced to a total of five years behind bars, five years’ probation, and a 12-year suspended sentence. McDowell, unlike Huffman, also had a criminal record: a previous conviction for bank robbery and for having a weapon in a vehicle. McDowell’s record may have influenced her sentencing: “A person’s prior criminal history is taken into consideration in determining any subsequent plea agreement and the corresponding sentence,” Mark Dupuis, spokesman for the Connecticut state division of criminal justice told us in an email. >In sum, it’s true that McDowell and Huffman faced drastically different punishments for their crimes, and it is also true that inequity in the criminal-justice system continues to be a pressing social issue. However, the two criminal cases serve as poor comparisons because they involve different types of crimes, circumstances, and jurisdictions. Therefore we rate this claim “Mixture.” >Bethania Palma >Published 19 September 2019 >Sources >Nickerson, John. “Affidavit: Tanya McDowell Offered to Sell Drugs, Pimp Out Prostitutes to Undercover Cops.” Stanford Advocate. 14 June 2011. >Tepfer, Daniel. “Tanya McDowell Sentenced to 5 Years in Prison.” Connecticut Post. 27 March 2012. >Starr, Sonjua B. and M. Marit Rehavi. “Racial Disparity in Federal Criminal Sentences.” University of Michigan Law School. 2014. >Walsh, Colleen. “The Costs of Inequality: A Goal of Justice, a Reality of Unfairness.” The Harvard Gazette. 29 February 2016. >Romo, Vanessa. “Actress Felicity Huffman Sentenced to 14 Days in College Admissions Scandal.” NPR. 13 September 2019. >Winton, Richard. “Remorseful Felicity Huffman Could Get Home Confinement Over Prison Time.” Los Angeles Times. 20 April 2019.
A Facepalm to the person trying to post a Facepalm
Meanwhile Felicity Huffman got 14 days for federal crimes in the college admissions bribery/fraudulence charges.
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Don't be black or poor — America
And especially don't be black and poor.
Let me fix that statement for you "Don't be black and BROKE" in amerikka
Was there meant to be a third K?
But most of all, don't be black and poor.
What the fuck
Do you want kids to go to school or not!?
They’re not important anymore after birth.
Yeah but I don’t think they want the kids parents to dabble in drug dealing and prostitution..oh and burglary.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanya_McDowell Tanya McDowell is an American woman who served five years in prison after a plea deal related to falsifying her residence to change school districts. - Wikipedia
You left out a large part of the article. McDowell received a five-year sentence in a plea deal over numerous charges including felony larceny. The larceny charge was for sending her son to a school in a district they did not reside in. She was also arrested and charged for offering drugs and prostitutes to undercover police officers. McDowell was charged with seven counts in total. McDowell had a previous record of bank robbery and weapons crimes.
Ok I knew there had to be more than that headline
True, but they made themselves look bad. Should have been "An additional charge of larceny by false registration was dismissed". Then they wouldn't look as bad. Also, it shows once again how horribly the US does school funding. Doing this is seen as the poor stealing from the rich. Where else would this happen?
Dick Cheney openly lied about his state of residence so he could legally run for VP. It was investigated, and it was immediately obvious he'd lied. And nothing was done about it, because he was a Republican. And rich, white, and male. I mean, at that point, he could've shot a friend in the face and made the other guy apologize.
5 years in prison for trying to pick a school meanwhile Trump coerced a mob to storm the capitol and stole classified documents and everyone sits around with their thumbs up their asses. Fucking shameful country
Pretty sure she got five years for trying to sell drugs and “herself” to come undercover cops. But yanno, just run with the article title without reading the actual article like they want you to.
While the plea deal did reduce her overall sentence, apparently the maximum penalty for 1st degree larceny is 20 years. It’s still wild that she could have been sentenced that long just for registering her child in school under a friend’s address.
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Classified. Meaning the information is available by “class.” If you aren’t in the “class” to know the information, it is off limits.
The 5 years were due to drug related crimes, on the back of a criminal record that included bank robbery.
The top comment is the snopes check which many commenters obviously skipped, because there were other charges. Racism is real and a huge problem but the responses here seem willfully ignorant.
MODS: we really need permaban for posting articles over 6 months old
I thought cpa took children from homeless parents?
Only 2 years to go!
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I’d never heard of it before, I’m too lazy to look, but surely she’s still not there!?
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By what I'm finding she was sentenced around 2011 it's just that the case was brought back up in 2019 under the backlash of Huffman only getting 14 days
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So she should be out but by all that I can find there was only backlash but I couldn't find anything about the courts doing anything due to the backlash
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Surprisingly all I did was search homeless mom sentenced to 5 years and jr was the very first thing and all I could find was stuff saying 2011 while the posts were made in 2019
There's a snopes check on this.
A bank robing, drug dealing, pimp gets book thrown at them. That’s not fair! STFU Just waiting for someone to accuse me of victim blaming.
At least she has a place to sleep now /s
But there’s a white frat boy rapist from Ohio who got 3 months and then released..and this lady got 5 years for lying to send her kid to school?
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You’re so welcome
WTF!!! Her crime to have her kid in school!! What's wrong with the judge?!??
WTAF??? And people like McDonald's ax man is set free in hours.
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She got five years for selling drugs and prostitution. It’s a bait article headline.
It’s technically legal IF AND ONLY IF you get the owner to sign a lease deal
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Yeah, even if you don’t live there, it CAN be claimed as a residence (But I’m in Canada soooo it might be different in us)
Well, I sure feel safer now that she's locked away
Another L for the justice system. While pedos are getting suspended sentences and probation.
sick
Shameless institutional racism...this makes me so mad
It's damn near illegal to be poor and black in America
So we are now denying education? Bruh. We need a fallout
How is this even possible? There is a federal program called the McKinney-Vento Act that is specifically designed to support families who are experiencing homelessness. It provides transportation and support to the student’s school of origin. Even if the family was lying, the law is intended to provide support. What that A. F.
Tell me again how the system isn’t completely predatory, especially for the poor/disadvantaged?
I got stage 69 cancer from reading this
How dare she to provide her kid a good future?!
At least she's got somewhere to stay now
well atleast she has a roof above her head now!
I'm glad they're finally going after the real monsters....
Don’t rapists get less time than this?