Posted on 04/23/2007 11:29:24 AM PDT by Dan Evans
Melissa Busekros, the schoolgirl taken by police and placed in a psychiatric hospital because she was diagnosed with a "school phobia" and was being homeschooled, has fled state custody to make a midnight trip back to her own family, according to Joel Thornton, president of The International Human Rights Group.
"At 3 a.m., in Erlangen, Germany, Melissa reached her home to the surprise of her entire family," Thornton told WND. "Earlier in the morning Melissa left a note with the foster family where she was being held and began the journey to her family. She left of her own volition."
Thornton said April 23 is Melissa's birthday, and on turning 16, "this gives her broader rights than it does in America. It gives her more of a voice in her own custody. So, she decided to return home."
"In fact, if the state police come for her again she is prepared to refuse to go on the advice of her attorney," Thornton said.
He reported Melissa was in contact with her legal adviser, Dr. Hildebrandt, to let him know she had returned home, and he is preparing to be at the family home in Erlangen if needed. Melissa Busekros and her sister speak with Richard Guenther, director of European operations for the International Human Rights Group, during the time Melissa was being kept in custody at a foster home. The girls here are in a clearing house where Melissa was scheduled to meet her parents
"Our director of European Operations, Richard Guenther, spoke with the family this morning and told them that it was imperative that they contact Dr. Hildebrandt to let him know that she has returned home," Thornton said.
"I spoke with Gudrun, Melissa's mother, just after midnight [EDT]. I conveyed our congratulations on having their daughter home. Gudrun was relieved to have her entire family back together," Thornton said.
He said the work continues in the legal forum, too.
"A week or so ago, Melissa was evaluated by a professor of psychology who is the director of the institution that oversaw Melissa's care while she was being held in state custody," Thornton said. "This new evaluation revealed that Melissa does not suffer from 'school phobia.' She is healthy and has made it through this traumatic ordeal remarkably well."
Thornton said Hildebrandt already has asked a higher German court to recognize the findings of the new evaluation.
A separate website, FreeMelissaB.com, launched by American homeschool leaders also had been lobbying on behalf of Melissa.
Melissa, last February when she still was 15 and subject to different German laws, was taken by police from her parents to a psychiatric ward after a social worker and judge determined she had a "school phobia" and was being homeschooled, which is illegal in Germany.
Melissa had fallen behind in math and Latin and was being tutored at home. When school officials in Germany, where homeschooling was banned during Adolf Hitler's reign of power, found out, she was expelled. School officials then took her to court, obtaining a court order requiring she be committed to a psychiatric ward.
Wolfgang Drautz, consul general for the Federal Republic of Germany, has commented on the issue on a blog, noting the government "has a legitimate interest in countering the rise of parallel societies that are based on religion or motivated by different world views and in integrating minorities into the population as a whole."
Drautz said homeschool students' test results may be as good as for those in school, but "school teaches not only knowledge but also social conduct, encourages dialogue among people of different beliefs and cultures, and helps students to become responsible citizens."
The German government's defense of its "social" teachings and mandatory public school attendance was clarified during an earlier dispute on which WND reported, when a German family wrote to officials objecting to police officers picking their child up at home and delivering him to a public school.
"The minister of education does not share your attitudes toward so-called homeschooling," said a government letter in response. "... You complain about the forced school escort of primary school children by the responsible local police officers. ... In order to avoid this in future, the education authority is in conversation with the affected family in order to look for possibilities to bring the religious convictions of the family into line with the unalterable school attendance requirement."
In Melissa's case, the local Youth Welfare Office arrived at the family home with about 15 uniformed police officers to take her into custody. They had in hand a court order allowing them to take her into custody, "if necessary by force."
Thornton has told WND many Christian families who object to the German government's sexualized education system are facing persecution, too.
Three other families recently released a letter pleading with Christians worldwide for prayer because of their "difficulties" – fines equal to thousands of dollars, frozen bank accounts and even the threat of the sale of the family home – because they homeschool their children.
The letter came from Alexander and Helene Schneider, Johann and Katharina Harder and Heiko and Anna Krautter and was released through the IHRG.
Thornton told WND the situations are becoming dire and parents more fearful about losing custody of their children because of what happened with Melissa.
"We are turning to all believing gospel Christians and Baptists in the CIS, Europe and America," the three sets of parents wrote. "We are three families of the church in Bischofswerda, and we homeschool our children. For that reason, we had to deal with numerous difficulties with the authorities."
The families cited fines of about $4,000 for the Harder and Krautter families and about $2,500 for the Schneider family – so far.
"Measures such as freezing our bank accounts, compulsory mortgages, insolvency of our self-employment are making our lives difficult," the letter said. "Even the custody of our children was to be taken from us, but GOD prevented it."
Now more fines are being imposed, and "even our homes are to be sold for that," the letter said.
"We ask that you pray for us and that you make your voice heard before the secular powers," said the letter.
"The German government is taking these actions simply because these parents homeschool their children," Thornton said. "With a very strong Christian faith and a conviction that they should be allowed to raise their children in a Christian educational environment, these families are taking a stand, particularly regarding their right to oversee the sex education of their children as well as protect them from occult influences."
He also said he was able to meet with members of the Brause family, about whom WND has reported. The German courts already have granted custody of the family's five children to social workers, although they had not yet moved them out of the family home.
Michael Farris, founder of the Home School Legal Defense Association, said the German government actually was creating for Melissa the "parallel society" which it claims to despise.
"When she was homeschooled [at home] Melissa got to see her friends, got to go to church, be out and about," he said. "Now she's being taught the same curriculum but she's entirely isolated.
"It's the German government that has robbed her of her normal life, including life with a family, which is supposed to be a child's right under the international law that Germany supposedly adheres to," he said.
Farris said he believes the German treatment of Christian homeschoolers is the "edge of the night that's coming" for believers.
"Germany is the only Western democracy taking this incredibly hard-line approach, but there are growing clouds on a number of national horizons," Farris told WND.
"The philosophy that the government knows best how to raise children is really becoming a worldwide phenomenon," Farris said. "I think Germany represents the edge of the night that's coming."
For the U.S., Farris has called for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to protect the right of parents to educate their children at home.
With more than 80,000 families who are members, HSLDA is the largest homeschool association in the world.
They invented the state school. The first kindergartens were in Prussia.
bring the religious convictions of the family into line with the unalterable school attendance requirement.”
The state is more powerful than god.
They should have taken their kid and run for it...
“They’re coming to take me away.. haha hoho heehee
“Melissa had fallen behind in math and Latin and was being tutored at home. When school officials in Germany, where homeschooling was banned during Adolf Hitler’s reign of power, found out, she was expelled. School officials then took her to court, obtaining a court order requiring she be committed to a psychiatric ward”
Was this something lost in translation or poor writing?
It appears from this paragraph that she actually attended school.
Otherwise, how could she have fallen behind in two subjects, and be expelled for “receiving home tutoring”??
Eleutherophobia - Fear of freedom.
Look it up.
She was in school. They kicked her out because her parents had the nerve to try to help her with what she didn’t understand. Then the state put her in a mental institution.
Home Schooling was banned by Adolf Hitler.
Home Schooling was banned by Adolf Hitler.
Watch for this story on your next NPR broadcast. /s
She had been attending public school. When she fell behind her parents helped her at home in two subjects. Crazy huh?
Imagine what would have happened if she had dropped out. Everyone would be put in jail.
Why aren't these people emigrating to the US as refugees from political/religious persecution?
And this type of society is what our home grown socialist liberals think is worthy of emulation.
How very....odd.
Rather the opposite is true. Just imagine yourself into the situation of a orthodox muslim girl growing up in Germany. If your parents have the possibility to "homeschool" you you have NO chance to develop your own personality or to break free out of their religious dungeon. Due to our laws i.e. the Turks have to deal with kids in the meantime who already were breathing the odour of freedom. We made good experience with this practice.
There is a wide consensus among the German society that homeschooling is not wanted because we like to see the childrens right on free information assured. On one hand many parents are simply not able to teach their kids due to their own incapability on the other hand it is quite likely that religious extreme parents i.e. deprive the kids the basic information that they need to survive in our society and that they need to think in a free manner. In registered schools certain standarts are guaranteed. Parents have the right to give their kids in private schools that meet that standart and also provide i.e. a religious program of their choice. Nevertheless the individual right of the kids on information will always be more important than the collective right of the families on self-determination in Germany.
It might sound quite offensive, but Evangelical Christian parents (that are those who usually try to homeschool kids in Germany from the Christian side) practically do not play a role in our country since they are only very few people. Pratically irrelevant. It is unlikely that our laws are changed just because of this handful of Christian homeschoolers since we have to deal with much bigger groups (i.e. the 3.7% muslims in Germany) and their wish to open a parallel society. It would be idiotic to do so, since the outcome of such a policy would be for sure disastrous. Then we are not speaking about the Busekos or whatever family anymore, then we are speaking about 500.000 trapped muslim kids. As I already said - Christian parents have the possibility to found religious schools that fit into our basic standarts. Then their kids are provided with the basic information the German society considers as nessecary and the beliefs of their parents at the same time. I have no problem with that.
Therefore homeschooling is forbidden in Germany and that will not change in the future. Other countries, other attitudes.
Somebody's been channeling Joseph Goebbels again.
“Probably a few retired spec ops guys who are homeschoolers who might offer assistance in getting across a border or two”
Yep! Where can we donate some cash to help this nice family? To America? Yep, let’s bring them in.
If we homeschoolers don’t keep making open stands for home education, this will come down the pike in the USA, too.
I just today had a meeting with people in Communist China who are homeschooling! They are Christians and are tired of having to straighten out the teaching of the teachers who are trying to teach their children atheistic Marxism. We know of several Christian Day Schools in China associated with unregistered churches. The movement is growing! PLEASE PRAY, CHRISTIANS!
Melissa Busekros was, from what I have read, attending a government school. She was getting all the indoctrination that the government deemed necessary. The home schooling was supplementary in two subjects where she was falling behind.
So I find it somewhat disingenuous for you to claim that the purpose of a ban on home schooling is to protect her "rights" to all the "information" that she needs. In fact the opposite is true, they want to restrict her parents from conveying information that the state deems offensive. It is quite apparent that the German government sees the school system as an indoctrination center to mold young minds into the ideal of the state and to discourage any diverse ideas that may be inconvenient to the controlling powers.
This whole dismal episode illuminates the supreme folly of those here in the United States who believe that this country should align our laws and customs with those of Europe.
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