2010 ‘injury to child’ arrest of mother on Idaho school board surfaces as election nears

Thirteen years ago, Joy Thomas hit what she says was the lowest point in her life.

Thomas, then 36, a single mother in Kuna with seven children, was arrested and charged with seven counts of injury to a child based on poor living conditions in their home.

The felony charges, one for each child, were reduced to three misdemeanors, which she pleaded guilty to in 2010. Those charges were for “causing the child(ren) to live, sleep and eat in a home filthy with rotting food, urine, feces and disarray, exposing them to fire hazard and health hazards,” according to Ada County court documents obtained by the Idaho Statesman through a public records request.

Today, Thomas is vice chair of the Kuna School Board. As she campaigns for a third four-year term in the Nov. 7 election, the charges have come to light. They are being used as political fodder, she said.

Thomas is also chief of staff of the Democratic minority in the Idaho House of Representatives, where she works full-time during the legislative session and part-time during the remainder of the year. High-ranking members have supported her latest bid.

“We were so, so poor,” Thomas told the Idaho Statesman. “And I made a couple of choices that I shouldn’t have made.”

Thomas said she was on welfare and didn’t have a job, though she had previously worked at Deseret Industries. Her children were ages 5, 7, 8, 10, 12, 14 and 16 at the time, all biological. She said she struggled with depression and relied too much on her older kids.

She also said the descriptors listed in the charges paint an inaccurate picture. She said there was no mold, feces or urine in the home, but she does recall laundry strewn about, cluttered floors and days’ worth of dirty dishes left on the kitchen counter.

“That’s not really what was happening there,” she said. “My children were never in physical danger.”

Sentence included 5 years of probation

She received a withheld judgment of 90 days in jail and was sentenced to five years of supervised probation, with the stipulation she cooperate with the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare. The children weren’t taken by the state’s child protective services system, she said, but they were sent to live with her parents for two weeks.

The department stayed involved for about six months, she said, and then “they felt there was no need to be involved any longer.” Still, there were occasional, random checks, she said.

When the case was filed over a decade ago, her last name was Garrison. That changed when she later remarried.

Thomas recounted the circumstances that led to the charges in a phone interview with the Statesman. In the months prior, she said, she had made the decision to leave a “very bad” relationship and was financially strapped.

It was 2010. She and her husband had separated, and he was out of state and providing little financial support, she said. They divorced in 2011.

“My son played football one season, and unbeknownst to me — because he never let me see it — he was duct-taping the soles of his cleats,” she said. “He didn’t want to ask me to spend money on something like that. We were that poor.”

She said she thought about the situation. “I decided I wasn’t going to let it define me,” she said.

School personnel helped her with her kids

Thomas said she realized the only way to dig her way out was through education. It didn’t happen quickly. But she enrolled at Boise State University, earned a degree in political science, and eventually, landed a paralegal job that paid enough to adequately provide for her family of eight.

She looked for help from the Kuna School District. Whenever a need arose, she said, school personnel helped her find solutions, including connecting her kids with scholarships so they could play sports.

Once, when three of her girls wanted to participate in Girls on the Run Treasure Valley, an organization that teaches life skills through physical activity, the district helped them get running shoes.

Thomas said she wanted to give back to the local schools, for all they’d done for her family, but wasn’t able to donate money. So she gave her time, volunteering in classrooms, chaperoning trips and helping out where she could.

Thomas said that when Jinny Greger, who previously occupied the Zone 1 seat on the Kuna School Board, decided not to run again, she asked Thomas to. Zone 1 covers a swath of land between Ten Mile and Five Mile roads.

“When I was preparing to run the first time, I sat down with the then-superintendent and assistant superintendent Wendy Johnson, who’s now the superintendent, and I told them exactly what happened and what the charges were,” Thomas said. “They said it wasn’t a problem, so I ran.”

Johnson did not respond to phone calls from the Statesman requesting comment.

Opponent: ‘I had nothing to do with it’

This election cycle, Thomas said, she anticipated that the charges would likely surface. So she addressed her past in a July newsletter to the residents of her zone.

A few months later, on Oct. 5, the South Valley Press — a small online news organization serving Kuna, Melba, Murphy and Marsing — posted an editorial that said the charges most recently “came to light through an active candidate in the (Kuna School Board) election,” who sent the site a tip, along with “others that seemed politically eager to provide more information.”

Thomas’ only challenger in the Nov. 7 election, Hillary Lowe, said that portion of the editorial implied that Lowe was responsible for sending the tip, which she denies.

“I had nothing to do with it,” Lowe said by phone. “Do I think it’s an important thing that voters should know? Probably. But it’s not going to be coming from me. I’m running on my own merits.”

In a comment section on the editorial posted to Kuna Must Know, a private Facebook group for community information, the South Valley Press confirmed that it was not Lowe who sent the tip.

Another school board candidate, Kristi Hardy, who’s challenging incumbent J.D. Grant in Zone 2, told the Statesman that information about Thomas’ court records from 2010 did not come directly from her either. Hardy shares several of the same donors as Lowe, according to the state’s campaign-finance portal. Zone 2 includes a chunk of land north of the city.

But Hardy said by phone that a supporter “brought it to her attention” and that she couldn’t remember “who all I’ve shared it with.”

Hardy said the issue needs to be put to rest.

Democratic leader says Thomas does ‘terrific work’

Rep. Ilana Rubel, a Democrat for Idaho’s Legislative District 18 — which includes Southeast and South Boise neighborhoods — and the House minority leader, told the Statesman that Thomas informed her of the charges before Thomas began working for the Idaho Democratic Party.

“It was not something that gave me any concerns at all about her ability to do the job,” Rubel said by phone. “She has done terrific work for us, and it’s my understanding she’s done terrific work as a school board member as well. I think it’s really unfortunate that people are trying to dredge this up.”

Thomas’ children, now ages 18, 20, 21, 23, 25, 28 and 29, penned a joint letter to Kuna voters addressing the charges and voicing their support for her. The letter was provided to the Statesman by email on Wednesday.

The children said the charges stem from a tumultuous time in their lives, and their mother used the situation as a catalyst for self- improvement.

“We experienced a variety of struggles as a result of poverty, and the school system was a light in our lives,” the letter said. “Our mom’s story is the American story: an individual who overcomes adversity to become a successful person who gives back to the community. Her life didn’t follow the path she planned.”

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