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Deaths of home-schooled kids across US shocking, but lawmakers reluctant to create new rules
Star Tribune ^ | 12-6-15 | Bill Draper

Posted on 12/06/2015 2:59:38 PM PST by windcliff

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — A Detroit brother and sister vanished more than two years before they were found dead in a freezer in their home, and an 11-year-old Florida girl disappeared more than a year before she, too, turned up in a family freezer. And a 7-year-old Kansas boy hadn't been seen for more than a month before authorities found the gruesome remains of a child in a pigsty inside his family's barn.

All of them were home-schooled, but despite their disappearances going unnoticed for so long, opposition from the government-wary home-schooling community means it's unlikely these states will start keeping closer tabs on home-schooled children.

"It's largely a conservative thing, but even progressive home-schoolers tend to resist oversight," said Rachel Coleman, co-founder of the nonprofit Coalition for Responsible Home Education. "Part of it is because there is an assumption that parents always know what's best for their children."

The most recent case, at a home near Kansas City, Kansas, is still being investigated and authorities said it could be weeks before they positively identify the child whose remains officers found in the barn.

Such cases are horrific but they don't typically lead to new restrictions on home-schooling, which many parents see as their deeply personal right, said Rob Kunzman, director of the International Center for Home Education Research at Indiana University.

Although the number of home-schooled students jumped nationwide to about 1.7 million between 2003 and 2012, they still represent just over 3 percent of all students, Coleman said.

"As many as two-thirds are home-schooling in part for religious reasons," Coleman said. "Part of that for conservative Christians is that God has given that child to the parents, not the state. The state doesn't own my child, God has entrusted my child to me."

(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Education; Religion; Society
KEYWORDS: childbuse; education; homeschool
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To: windcliff

The death rate of kids in foster care is higher.


41 posted on 12/06/2015 3:59:15 PM PST by tbw2
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To: muir_redwoods
Please read my post #38.

There are neighborhoods in this nation where the child really would be safer if he never ( I really mean **never**) poked his nose outside his family's apartment.

There are so called “schools” ( institutional government child facilities) that are sooooooooo horrific that it would be better for the child to **NEVER** attend. Never! Illiteracy and innumeracy can be fixed. Adults do it all the time. Dead or permanently disabled can't be.

42 posted on 12/06/2015 4:00:51 PM PST by wintertime (Stop treating government teachers like they are reincarnated Mother Teresas!)
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To: Lizavetta
But...but...they didn't die at school! so they dont count!
43 posted on 12/06/2015 4:02:01 PM PST by arthurus (Het is waar. Tutti i liberali sono feccia.)
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To: windcliff
As a public school teacher that hangs out on FR and groans at the weekly “all teachers are communist, all public schools are evil all the time, here's another reason to home school” comments; my first response is to chuckle at those now sputtering at the unfairness of being painted with the broad brush they themselves often wield.

But this article is an unfair hatchet job against home schoolers. I have friends that home school and the only thing in their freezer is deer meat. Of course many liberals will think that is worse than the stories of the murdered children.

44 posted on 12/06/2015 4:03:10 PM PST by fungoking (Tis a pleasure to live in the Ozarks)
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To: windcliff
They make a good point - no child in a public school has ever been harmed by a parent or guardian.

Right?

45 posted on 12/06/2015 4:04:04 PM PST by wideawake
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To: windcliff
Gee! ! 60,000 kids are injured in their school buses badly enough to need an emergency room visit. h handful are crushed and dragged to death in school bus accidents. What about those institutionally schooled kids?

Who is looking after these government abused kids. Should they be forced to homeschool?

46 posted on 12/06/2015 4:16:12 PM PST by wintertime (Stop treating government teachers like they are reincarnated Mother Teresas!)
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To: House Atreides

Quite!


47 posted on 12/06/2015 4:17:18 PM PST by DakotaGator (Weep for the lost Republic! And keep your powder dry!!)
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To: The Ghost of FReepers Past

I never said that, I expressly said that on an aggregate lever home schooled kids may be safer. Can’t people read?


48 posted on 12/06/2015 4:27:54 PM PST by muir_redwoods (Freedom isn't free, liberty isn't liberal and you'll never find anything Right on the Left)
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To: csivils

I said, quite clearly, in standard English, that, on an aggregate level, home-schooled kids may be safer. Are you taking issue with that?

I went to school with 1800 other kids and more than 100 staff. Is it your contention that home-schooled kids typically have a similar circle of contacts?


49 posted on 12/06/2015 4:30:47 PM PST by muir_redwoods (Freedom isn't free, liberty isn't liberal and you'll never find anything Right on the Left)
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To: wintertime

I can’t answer your questions. Do you have anything beyond suspicion to support your suggestions?


50 posted on 12/06/2015 4:32:19 PM PST by muir_redwoods (Freedom isn't free, liberty isn't liberal and you'll never find anything Right on the Left)
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To: wintertime

Which is why I stated, clearly, that in aggregate, home schooled kids may be safer. Did you read my response before you wrote yours?


51 posted on 12/06/2015 4:33:34 PM PST by muir_redwoods (Freedom isn't free, liberty isn't liberal and you'll never find anything Right on the Left)
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To: Dr. Sivana

None. I guarantee these families were already in the social services system.


52 posted on 12/06/2015 4:40:36 PM PST by cyclotic (Liberalism is what smart looks like to stupid people.)
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To: Scrambler Bob
Everyone who graduates (or drops out) from a public school WILL die!


53 posted on 12/06/2015 4:40:49 PM PST by Disambiguator
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To: muir_redwoods

I was responding ot the article. Sorry for the misunderstanding.


54 posted on 12/06/2015 4:46:41 PM PST by The Ghost of FReepers Past (Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light..... Isaiah 5:20)
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1. I will never willingly surrender my firearms to a governmental authority.
2. I will refuse to allow my children to be schooled by the progressive educational establishment that seeks to destroy their minds and souls with indoctrination in atheism, homosexuality, and communism, and force them to worship their almighty god, the State.


55 posted on 12/06/2015 4:47:38 PM PST by Arkansas Toothpick
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To: fungoking

Amen.


56 posted on 12/06/2015 4:48:29 PM PST by GenXteacher (You have chosen dishonor to avoid war; you shall have war also.)
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To: Arm_Bears

Don’t forget the death rate of those children under the auspices of CPS. It is not the death rate that matters to these people it is the lack of government control in every aspect of people’s lives they really care about.


57 posted on 12/06/2015 4:53:35 PM PST by lastchance (Credo.)
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To: House Atreides
... the AP is living up to the name "Absolutely Pseudo-news".

Or its alternate name - American Pravda.

58 posted on 12/06/2015 5:17:07 PM PST by Tonytitan
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To: muir_redwoods

The majority of those 1800 other kids and staff didn’t see you even on a weekly basis. For the circle that did, yes... it is my contention, backed by research that the average homeschool student has as large or larger circle of contacts. Both in terms of adults and peers.

I provided a link to research to back my point... you have made up numbers. Care to do better?


59 posted on 12/06/2015 5:18:11 PM PST by csivils
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To: windcliff

How many kids have been psychologically and physically abused in Public School. How many beaten and murdered? This wacko should take care of that before worrying about a few bad homeschool parents.

This is another agenda item for the left. Halt homeschool. Like Germany.


60 posted on 12/06/2015 5:19:33 PM PST by SaraJohnson
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