Maryland School Official Swipes Federal Funds, Buys Gadgets

[Earnest Cavalli]

Maryland School Official Swipes Federal Funds, Buys Gadgets

Rayda Barnes-Thomas faces up to 10 years in prison for using $100,000 in federal funding to purchase videogames, cameras and laptops.

Barnes-Thomas had worked as a "Title I specialist" in the Charles County, Maryland public school system since 2006, a role that put her in charge of distributing more than $2 million in federal funding to the district's poorest students and schools. Instead, Maryland police claim, Barnes-Thomas embezzled over $100,000, which was spent on "... three Nikon Coolpix cameras, three 32GB iPod Touches, a GPS device, two 32-inch televisions, Madden NFL 11 for the Nintendo Wii and a MacBook," among other things.

The theft came to light when other officials in the school system noticed that laptops had gone missing. More accurately, that laptops purchased with federal funds under Barnes-Thomas' name, had gone missing. This spawned a wider investigation in which 200 missing items were linked to Barnes-Thomas' use of Title I funding.

Eventually police searched her home and a home belonging to her daughter and found a number of the items in questions. A few of the items, police allege, were sold by Barnes-Thomas and her daughter to acquaintances and friends.

Rayda Barnes-Thomas will face a judge for sentencing next month. While it is as yet unclear what her punishment will be, the Charles County school system hopes to see some kind of monetary restitution.

Perhaps the most depressing part of this entire thing is how long Barnes-Thomas was able to continue her embezzlement. According to the Washington Post, she was swiping federal funds right from under everyone's noses for two years, and the only reason she was ever caught is that she got a bit too greedy and people caught on to the swarm of missing computers she'd bought. With a bit more care Barnes-Thomas could still be living the high life in a house full of the latest tech toys.

What does that say about the sort of oversight applied to how the government doles out these wads of federal funding?

Source: Washington Post [http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/us-attorney-md-school-staffer-used-federal-funds-to-buy-video-games-ipods/2011/06/07/AGZwdQLH_story.html]
(Image [http://www.flickr.com/photos/aresauburnphotos/2678453389/])

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[Harbinger_]

Makes one wonder if this is going on in this situation where else could this be going on in the government. Also... Madden NFL 11? Really?

 

[RadiusXd]

Makes one wonder if this is going on in this situation where else could this be going on in the government. Also... Madden NFL 11? Really?

for the wii too, and a macbook... Casuals....
/joke
but seriously though, I could definitely think of better things to buy, including other wii titles.

 

[Drakos.Amatras]

Unbelieveable! She bought Madden 11? For the Wii!? [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ComicallyMissingThePoint]

 

[Banana Cannon]

She bought Madden 11? She had it coming. Notice that she used her daughter to fence the stolen goods as well. Such people are a waste of space, and their entire assets should be seized to compensate the punishment for the crime. The whole amount of that money shouldn't be dealt out to one person, simple as,

 

[Denamic]

Now all the other embezzlers will be more covert with their embezzling and never get caught.

 

[Low Key]

Out of all the laptops out there, she bought a Macbook? That right there tells me she's not that bright, not to mention, it probably cost her about half of that $100,000.

 

[Terramax]

This person's gonna get so much hell for buying that Madden game...

 

[kurupt87]

To be fair it always seems hypocritical to me when the goverment of the USA has a go at people who embezzle or take bribes.

 

[Baresark]

This is not an uncommon situation. People on administrative levels within any government body do stuff like this all time. It's theft of stolen money. The state steals it from people, she steals it from them. I know what'll fix it, a whole new layer of bureaucratic oversight.... oh wait, no it won't.

This person's gonna get so much hell for buying that Madden game...

She is messing up the class action lawsuit!!!!!!

 

[weirdee]

Still beats makeshift kidney surgery.

 

[Psycho Cat Industries]

I'm not surprised.This kind of stuff just seems expected sometimes.

 

[SteewpidZombie]

A Federal Representative Of A North American Country In The School System Is Corrupt...Ohhhhhhh Noooo...Who Could Have Possibly Foreseen That Someone Holding A High Position Of Power And Finance Would Abuse It!


Sarcasm aside though, it's funny just how dumb people are to not have noticed all these purchases being made or laptops going missing XD

 

[Jodah]

Unbelieveable! She bought Madden 11? For the Wii!? [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ComicallyMissingThePoint]

Not gunna lie, thats the first thing that went through my mind when reading the article. Who the hell plays Madden 11 on a Wii?!

 

[Frylock72]

You have to be pretty damn naive to be surprised by stories like this. Besides, how the hell did she blow through $100,000 so quickly, without buying things like cars and whatnot? I mean, damn. Used wisely, I could live a good long while on $100k, and it would last a while even given the expenses I'd be racking up.

 

[JakobBloch]

"Any system of government or economics will fail because of the greed of the individual."
- me

Communism, capitalism, liberalism, libertarianism, feudalism, facism and more all have utopic versions where it will work and all will be happy and prosperous. The problem is that the moment someone becomes greedy or selfish it all falls apart. In communism an individual is willing to live of the suffering of others. Same thing in capitalism incidentally. Liberalism and libertarianism both loss out because someone will fell their freedom is more important then that of another. Feudalism looses out because lords take their privileges, status and power very seriously but ignores his duties. Facism fails fails when an individual sets his own family above the party. All fail when the individual exalts itself above the rest.

This story is a prime example of this behaviour.

Pretentious Bastard out.

 

[Kenjitsuka]

"What does that say about the sort of oversight applied to how the government doles out these wads of federal funding?"

Corrupt people are everywhere... have always been and always will be.
No amount of oversight will catch/prevent them all.
If there is "no corruption" it means "none *discovered yet* ".