She is living in a homeless shelter and has been for some time.Only because their home burned down. They have property and a new home that volunteers are helping them get into livable condition. Is living in a homeless shelter reason to take children away from their parents?
They abandoned a bunch of animals (they were rescued) on a little one-acre piece of land they own which is a junk heap of demolished buildings.
They didn’t “abandon” any animals. They made the trip everyday to feed them and check on them. Some busybodies from the Humane Society decided the animals needed “rescuing” so they went and got the town council to give them the ok.
They were in the process of clearing the land up to make room for their new home and to make shelters for their animals.
Again, are these reasons to take the parents’ children away from them?
She has no source of income that I heard about.
You’re right, we didn’t hear about any her having any income in that story. However it did mention they had some sort of budget so the husband must have been making something.
She is only in jail now because she refuses completely to cooperate in any way, including being fingerprinted or photographed in connection with criminal charges.
She stood up for her civil rights. Could she have done so in a different way? Probably, but I don’t see where her civil disobedience provides sufficient cause to take her children away.
I don't see things in terms of whether she, or Vermont, own her kids.
That’s because you are a normal person. ;^)
Unfortunately the public school system and the gov’t of VT have shown that they think otherwise.
She is a train wreck who happens to home school, and the arguments are too twisted when it centers on a crazy.
We don’t know that she is a “train wreck”. She may have been a wonderful homeschooling mother. The story even said that one of the complaints against her was that her expectations for her children were “too high”. That doesn’t sound like a complaint that would be levelled at someone who is blowing off their kid’s schooling.
Maybe your perspective would change if you had children. I cannot see the state taking children away from their parents unless they were in danger of physical injury. Who is to say that the children are better off as wards of the state? Here in Florida there is a scandal going on about our foster care system. There are a large number of children missing and they are considered to be in great danger.
I know this story has made me want to make sure that I am paying dues to HSLDA (Homeschooling Legal Defense Assocation).
(Rosie, I'm pinging you in case you may have heard more about this particular case in your local media and can shed a little more light on the subject.)
Hullo ksen.... I could just say "You're right". That would be the smart thing to do! [should, I should!] but I see a lot going on there between the lines that tells me this is not about home schooling. This is not a symptom that the gubmit is about to raid and take kids from all the home schooling parents. For good or ill, the gubmit gets involved when things fall below a certain level and the family is now dependent on the state. When the state starts supporting you, they will have more to say about your life.
The family has been in the homeless shelter or camping for three years. Three years is a long time to be a victim of one bad circumstance of the house burning down. She got insurance money from that and bought a property that was not livable and was gonna take a lot of money to fix up. Money she didn't have. There are people who just can't make a good decision to save their life. Their lives are always on the verge of chaos. They end up in court battles where in the midst of everything else that is coming apart, they decide the most important thing to do to pitch a fit about fingerprints and allow themselves to be jailed over it. In other words.... She is fighting the state over EVERYTHING at once. Every aspect of her life is messed up, and her continuing to home school is one tiny piece of it.
Regarding the animals, she put goats and dogs and chickens on the property. There are a lot of holes in the story that I have filled in with my own experience. They didn't have shelter, she said she was going to build shelters out of the stuff in the junk piles. But she didn't. I don't believe for a minute she was driving 38 miles back and forth every day to tend all the farm animals, because that takes money for a lot of gas, and a working car, and money for food and supplies for them... money that she doesn't have. Imagine a person of great responsibility keeping up that schedule for very long on little money. Now realize our person does not have a good track record for keeping her life in good order. Animal control took them. Tinfoil hats aside, they don't take animals that are healthy and cared for. Taking them is a major pain.
And I can't tell what is going on with all the arrests and hurt wrists and hearings about the two special ed kids and this and that, but I used to work in social work, and the story rings like one of those. "None of these tragedies is my fault... bad things just always happen to me, over and over and over again." She reads like a train wreck... and my main point was that not every case is a great example of anything. The really whacked out stories only complicate the argument. We have to be careful which martyrs we choose in our causes. We have to choose the good ones.
There. Hullo! Good morning!
