This is equal parts inspiring and baffling.
When Ohio mom Tamika Hamilton’s son needed to go to summer school, she ran into a bit of a speed bump:
She didn’t have the $400 tuition she needed.
Tamika wouldn’t let her son miss summer school, so she went to a school board official and said she didn’t have the money upfront.
That’s when Superintendent Charles Keenan told her that if she had something worth $400 the school district could hold it as collateral until she repaid the $400 bill.
So Hamilton offered up her diamond ring and then singed a contract.
The ring was later brought back to her house by a member of the school board.
According to the superintendent, he didn’t realize that practice had ended. He said:
“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. We do not run a pawn shop. I did this with the best of intentions, but no good deed goes unpunished.”
Honestly, the fact that they were only holding her ring until she paid the money back makes this all seem not so intense.
Obviously we feel a payment plan or something would’ve been better but at least they tried to help her.
All we really hope is that Hamilton’s son gets a quality education. Every child deserves that.