Posted on 04/21/2015 4:47:07 AM PDT by Michael van der Galien
In the wake of the tragic murders of two Michigan children whose mother tortured them before stuffing them into the familys freezer, lawmakers are calling for more stringent regulation of homeschooling in the state.
The proposed legislation from state Rep. Stephanie Chang, a Detroit Democrat, would require homeschooled children to be inspected twice per year by a licensed social worker or law enforcement officer. The bill would also require homeschooling parents to register their children like dogs or sex offenders with the superintendent of the school district in which they reside. Michigan is one of eleven states that do not require homeschooling parents to report to state or local authorities.
CBS Detroit reported:
Chang cited the case of Stoni Ann Blair and Stephen Gage Berry as a reason for planning the legislation. Investigators believe Stephen was 9 when he died in August 2012 and that Stoni was 13 when she died the following May. Their mother, who is accused of torturing and killing them and then stuffing their bodies in the freezer, had said she homeschooled them.
We all failed Stoni and Stephen because Michigan does not maintain a list of homeschooled children and so we have no way to identify and then protect any child who could be at risk for abuse, Chang said. Most homeschool parents have their childs best interest in mind, and many do a fine job homeschooling, but with Stephen and Stoni, that wasnt the case.
Every few years legislation like this pops up as a knee-jerk reaction to some terrible tragedy that was inflicted upon children who were allegedly homeschooled. The most recent was in Ohio in 2013, when Democratic state Senator Capri Cafaro introduced Teddys Law in reaction to the very tragic death of Teddy Foltz-Tedesco in January 2013.
(Excerpt) Read more at pjmedia.com ...
I called my state rep and talked about this. I asked why homeschoolers are being held accountable for a government agencies failure.
Apparently they are getting a lot of negative feed back from homeschoolers. Which I would expect from my area. We have over a thousand home school families.
I stated that I pulled my kids out of public school because it was failing my kids. Not only that but also that my wife was called to the school because my son brought a lego gun to school. It was a half centimeter square. They were also told that they could not bring a bible to school. This is the kind of government intrusion that resulted in my kids being pulled from school and now they know.
I also stated that I would not be quiet about this. That I would drag out how much this rep Chang received from public schools. Also how this was not homeschoolers but a failure of CHP.
I was homeschooled, and had to be registered with the local school district according to PA law. My work had to be submitted for inspection, and medical exams were mandatory too. This is not considered unusual or offensive by most people...but then, it happened in a town where the antique dealers were required by law to submit all business records to the police department. Yes, every transaction, purchase, sale, all banking and credit card activity. You are answerable to the badge.
I think this accountability is the wave of the future. We are certainly hip-deep in this state already.
Like I told my senator and rep.
I don’t have kids but we cannot allow state agencies to fail and use their failures to go after people who are completely innocent. This woman and her kids were already in the system because of a known pattern of ongoing abuse and protective services should have been conducting regular inspections of the home all along.
I don't see this going up for a vote. The R's control both legislative chambers and they aren't doing to take a bill up from a Detroit democrat in most cases. The R's can be squishes here at times, but they don't like the teachers' unions at all.
I told Mike Shirkey that I would like to see an investigation into why Child protective services wasn’t keeping tabs on this woman they knew had a documented history of child abuse.
I’ve got an idiot niece who has CPS hounding her constantly and she’s not abusive, just self centered and negligent.
That’s a tough one. Should homeschool kids have ZERO oversight? Not every parent is capable of doing an adequate job of educating their children, regardless of their good intentions.
But the other side is that the leftists who administer such oversight programs will be more concerned with the kids missing out on the early propagandizing that creates good little Marxists!
I just wonder what mandatory visits from the “authorities” teaches the children about family, parental respect, and the system we live in.
Statistics show that homeschool kids as a group do better than public school students. Not perfect, but of the two systems... the one that needs more “work” is the public school system. Until the government can get that worked out to at least be even with homeschooling.... their advice and “help” is not the solution.
Homeschool ping
See post #30 above from Darren McCarty with the following link...
STATEMENT FROM THE CHAIRMAN OF THE SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE:
http://www.senatorphilpavlov.com/open-letter-to-michigan-parents/
This ping list is for articles of interest to homeschoolers. I hold both the Homeschool Ping List and the Another Reason to Homeschool Ping List. Please freepmail me to let me know if you would like to be added or removed from either list, or both.
The keyword for the FREE REPUBLIC HOMESCHOOLERS FORUM is frhf.
perfect statement. they act as if public schooled children are never murdered or abused by their parents or the system. only those evil homeschoolers do those kinds of things.
Obviously!....Being institutionally schooled didn't save these kids.
Perhaps once children are deemed to be in a home needing supervision homeschooling moms should visit the home instead of child protection workers.
Do you have to let them in? What happens if you don’t?
If they come without a warrant, even if accompanied by a police officer, you are under no obligation to let them into your house. In fact, it's in your best interests not to.
Understand, however, that if you turn them away because they don't have a warrant, the next thing they will try to do is to go get a warrant. That's why you want to have the phone number of a good local lawyer and the HSLDA on hand.
I hear you sister... Not happening.
to control by any means.
As homeschooler you are visited once or twice a month by who??
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