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Posted on 11/19/2004 10:06:18 PM PST by SecurityMom
Marcus Wesson had 16 children.
He stayed home to tinker with a bus and boat, and to educate the children.
His wife and older daughters went to work. When they were with him in public, the women were quiet.
On March 12, nine members of his family, ages 1 to 24, were shot in the face in their Fresno, Calif., home. Wesson, 57, has been charged with multiple counts of murder.
Local school officials found no record of contact with the family.
Home schooling isn't recognized as an option in California law, so responsibility for oversight is ``very muddy,'' said Armen Bacon, spokeswoman for Fresno County schools. ``They can slip through the cracks quite easily.''
Perhaps if the children had been in school rather than home-schooled, one of them would have whispered to a teacher hints of incest at home. Maybe one would have revealed that Wesson was stockpiling coffins.
Just as the killing of 13 students at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., in April 1999 aroused fear that public schools were unsafe, questions are raised about home-schooling families after tragedies such as the Wesson case.
The U.S. Department of Justice knows how many crimes occur at school, on the way to school and at home. Statistics show that, despite the events at Columbine, public school buildings remain among the safest places for a child.
But the department keeps no records on children schooled at home.
Consequently, crime experts can't answer the question: Are home-schooled children more or less at risk of violence than other school-age children?
Many school officials and social workers believe that a growing number of parents are operating under the guise of home schooling although they have no interest in educating their children, may have psychological problems, or, worse, are a threat to their children...
(Excerpt) Read more at ohio.com ...
Don't forget to add clueless to your list.
More propaganda from the NEA and its ilk.
When I homeschool my kids, it won't be for reasons of "safety". It will be because the goobermint skrewl system does a pi$$-poor job of educating (as opposed to indoctrinating) kids.
End of story.
Ditto from one former (lunatic, mental, latent murdering, insert any other epithet) home school mom. What? Oh, yeah. They graduated with mechanical and civil engineering degrees respectively and are now officers in the Navy. Woops, how did that happen?
How pathetic... Let's see the oldest was 24 - yep she had no opportunity to tell...Let's blame homeschooling instead of the sick psychopath...
The title of this article might as well be "Children No Safer With Their Parents Than They Are With Strangers."
It is much easier to let the public school system babysit your kids than to keep them at home.
I am a home schooling mom, but I am also a foster parent. So, I am trying to look at this issue from both sides. In many ways I would love for our government to go to a voucher system for school dollars, allowing us home schoolers to cash our vouchers to pay for curriculum costs. But I also realize that this would encourage some people to try to "get around" the system by keeping their children home in order to receive voucher funds. It is also an added problem with abusive parents whose children may then have little outside contact with anyone to whom they might report problems or abuses. My experience has been, however, that most abusive or neglectful parents want their children going to public schools since they then don't have to feed their children from their own dollar, their children are marked as "in need" and often receive clothing, gifts and other things that their parents can't or won't provide them with, and they get a "break" from their children so that they can do what they want to be doing. The cases of children being kept home from schooling for any length of time because a parent wants to abuse or neglect the child are extremely rare. Even in the case you have provided, the story states that the girls and the mother went outside the home to work. This means the girls DID have outside contact with people away from the father. It is stories like this that give homeschooling a bad name. We should not jump to the conclusion that ALL home schoolers may have an ulterior motive.
Well - I'm wondering if this is a way someone has found to attack home schooling ()
Why can't something be set up to monitor parents requesting to do home schooling - for the childrens sake - That shouldn't be hard to do - I wouldn't think -
After hearing about the teens that tossed the turkey, what the one boy did to the other boy in school, and seeing how many kids behave today - and having been schooled in public schools - I'd take home schooling anyday -
I also read where the test showing improvement in the public schools may not be giving an accurate account of what is going on. The tests are made too easy - and that is said to be why the scores are going up - Is that really helping these kids?
Why isn't someone doing a complete investigation into the public schools - Too bad someone doesn't have the power to set up an investigating team - I'd start with the teachers and the school boards - Too many children are turning to violence to solve their problems - real or imagined - and I would think that shows there is a breakdown -
No Child Left Behind will never work until/unless someone goes back to start - and makes sure the base is there - Why throw more money after bad -
The whole situation is sad - and bad for this nation. In my opinion -
I don't think this would happen in a homeschool environment.
I don't see the connection between home schooling and the crime.
Homeschooling had nothing to do with this crime.
BS. To put all homeschooling kids in this category is as stupid as the Law & Order CI episode where the homeschooling mother blows up her kids.
These people are just upset because they can't get a crack at my kids (I homeschool) to program them the way they want toooooooo!
This is nothing more than liberal claptrap intended to support leftist causes, public schools, and portray Christians as dumb, violent yahoos. Citing this case as evidence of the risk of homeschooling is like claiming democracy is an unsafe form of government because elections in Africa are corrupt and always results in dictatorships.
The article doesn't tell you the truth about Marcus Wesson. He is not a white hick who carries a Bible and expects his women to be subservient. He is an African-American rafsanjari type with dreadlocks who had all his children with multiple women (including via incest with children and nieces) and is probably mentally ill.
From the Fresno Bee, April 18, 2004
http://www.fresnobee.com/local/story/8454304p-9289231c.html
the 300-pound Wesson looms as a monster who twisted the Bible to suit his sexual appetite, fathered children with his daughters and nieces and sometimes fed his family pinto beans and fruit taken from trash cans while he dined on hamburgers, cookies and other junk food. Authorities, relatives and public records suggest he has fathered up to 18 children with seven women, including members of his family.
Here's the pervert's photos:
The author of this article is looking under rocks for fringe characters in order to make his case that homeschooling is bad.
"Why can't something be set up to monitor parents requesting to do home schooling - for the children's sake - That shouldn't be hard to do - I wouldn't think -"
What??? I don't need to be monitored on how I raise my kids! The govt. needs to stay out of that department. When the govt. is needed they don't usually do a great job anyway, when there are obvious signs of abuse. Most recently, children starving to death!
Exactly
"Liberals are the only species whose powers of reasoning are not improved by the benefit of hindsight." Ann Coulter, "How To Talk To A Liberal (If You Must)" page 94.
Not that deep - I didn't mean it the way you took it. You may be the greatest parent on earth - but sadly - there are some out there who aren't - I was thinking some group that - when a parent first starts the process - could check on the home situation -
No firm controls or anything like that - just a pre-check - that way people would know the situation - Any good environment would have no problems I would think -
just my opinion -
"I was thinking some group that - when a parent first starts the process - could check on the home situation"
No thanks, that would be relinquishing to much power to the LEFT in the parenting department.
"No firm controls or anything like that - just a pre-check - that way people would know the situation - Any good environment would have no problems I would think -"
That would be giving up. No problems??? Hmmmm, yah sure. If you trust the LEFT that much I feel sorry for you. They already label you if your Christian and live in "Jesusland".
You think, I think not.
The newest statistics on the unending failure of government schools must have just been released. You can always count on hit pieces on homeschooling right about that time.
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