Tanya McDowell

Tanya McDowell is an American woman who was sentenced to prison for five years for falsifying her son's residence to get him into a neighbouring school district in combination with two charges of selling drugs. McDowell used her babysitter's address to enroll her son into a Norwalk public elementary school despite not living in that area. Her case has been used to highlight drastically harsher sentencing for African Americans especially in comparison to Felicity Huffman's 14 day sentence for a federal crime as part of the 2019 college admissions bribery scandal. Prosecutors from the U.S. attorney's office in Boston in Operation Varsity Blues cited McDowell's case as well as five others in their arguments for the length of prison time for convictions in the admissions scandal. Her case has also highlighted barriers to legitimate employment, exclusionary educational zoning, barriers to university admission and increased oversight and scrutiny in public housing. In June 2011, Al Sharpton, the American civil rights activist, Baptist minister and talk show host spoke at a rally in support of McDowell.