I've heard of giving the shirt off your back for your children's education, but the ring off your finger? Well, that's a new one.
But that's exactly what one Ohio mom said she had to do in order to get her son into summer school. Tamika Hamilton's son needed to go to summer school if he was going to be promoted from 7th to 8th grade, but she could not pay the $400 tuition bill up front. According to Hamilton, Superintendent Charles Keenan offered her a solution: she could let the school district hold something that was worth $400 as collateral until she was able to pay off the tuition bill. That sounds sort of shady, doesn't it?
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Hamilton kind of thought so. "I was surprised, but I wanted my son to go to summer school," she tells WKYC. So she handed the district a diamond ring to keep as collateral and signed the contract. However, despite Hamilton's reservations, Keenan insists the practice was on the up-and-up. "In my tenure, I've done this a handful of times, when parents can't pay up front. I can look myself in the mirror and know that I was trying to help this family. It was a unique situation, "says Keenan. "It was not collateral. We do not run a pawn shop. I did this with the best of intentions, but no good deed goes unpunished. I'm going to be put through the wringer for trying to help."
Hmm, I get that he was trying to provide parents with options, but let's not paint spray perfume on a skunk and call it a cat. The ring was, by definition, collateral. According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, collateral is defined as something "being used as security (as for payment of a debt or performance of a contract)." See?
But at the end of the day, Hamilton's contract with the school board was for nada. Her son was not promoted to the 8th grade, after all. According to the district, his attendance was not up to par, and he did not pass the summer classes. Hamilton has issued a complaint to the Ohio Department of Education regarding the matter. As for her ring, it's been returned to her, safe and sound.
Image via Thinkstock
