Woman abandons home to escape public schools

WorldNetDaily.com ^ | December 20, 2007 | Bob Unruh

[Man50D]

A Utah woman who was ordered by a juvenile court judge to enroll her children in public school or lose custody of them has abandoned her home, furniture and other possessions to escape the order.

Denise Mafi, a nine-year veteran of homeschooling, has confirmed to WND she and her children packed up their essentials – clothes and homeschool materials – and fled Utah over the weekend, spending more than 50 hours on a bus trip to another undisclosed part of the country.

There she has obtained an empty home, and is spending the Christmas break trying to find beds for her children and herself, and after the New Year, will involve the children in a local homeschooling process.

"We're shampooing carpets right now. We have no furniture. We have no beds," she said. "But my kids are not going to public school. They are not going where Jesus isn't welcome."

Her home, furniture and other possessions left behind in Utah? "I'm not going back unless the judge removes the threat of arrest," she said. "I'll fight for the cause but I'm not going to be a martyr."

The case erupted for Mafi because of an apparent paperwork glitch that could very well be the fault of her local school district. Now Utah home school officials say they have asked the state Legislature to review actions by the judge, whose office has declined comment to WND.

[MEGoody]

I can understand her moving, but why did she have to ‘flee’? Was the state holding her hostage and not allowing her to leave or something?

[twinzmommy]

This blog http://principleddiscovery.com/ has some interesting background — seems the blogger went and searched other sources for more info about Mafi.

Interesting reading.

[MEGoody]

They mess it up for the rest of us.

Strange. A few home-schoolers who are nutcases mess it up for all home-schoolers, but there are thousands of examples of how public schools are screwing up kids. Yet, the same ones calling for an end to home-schooling because of the few nutcases never say a word about the public schools.

[ShadowAce]

Homeschool Ping

[MarkL]

I can understand her moving, but why did she have to ‘flee’? Was the state holding her hostage and not allowing her to leave or something?

If she was being threatened with jail, then it's an accurate, and legal term.

Mark

[Leisler]

“In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet and say to us, ‘Make us your slaves, but feed us.’” (Dosteovsky’s Grand Inquisitor.)

It’s an old, human story.

Towards the end of the Roman Empire, freeman Roman citizens would show up at the large estates of the Roman Senators, and in return for food and shelter, would surrender their citizenship and make them, and their children in perpetuity, serfs. This was the beginning of the Italians, and Europeans principalities.

[2harddrive]

Judges like THAT are the ultimate vindication of the 2nd Amendment!

[Leisler]

1. The Deterioration of Schooling

The quality of schooling is far worse today than it was in 1955. There is no respect in which inhabitants of a low-income neighborhood are so disadvantaged as in the kind of schooling they can get for their children. The reason is partly the deterioration of our central cities, partly the increased centralization of public schools--as evidenced by the decline in the number of school districts from 55,000 in 1955 to 15,000 in 1992. Along with centralization has come--as both cause and effect--the growing strength of teachers' unions. Whatever the reason, the fact of deterioration of elementary and secondary schools is not disputable.

The system over time has become more defective as it has become more centralized. Power has moved from the local community to the school district to the state, and to the federal government. About 90 percent of our kids now go to so-called public schools, which are really not public at all but simply private fiefs primarily of the administrators and the union officials.

We all know the dismal results: some relatively good government schools in high-income suburbs and communities; very poor government schools in our inner cities with high dropout rates, increasing violence, lower performance and demoralized students and teachers.

These changes in our educational system have clearly strengthened the need for basic reform. But they have also strengthened the obstacles to the kind of sweeping reform that could be produced by an effective voucher system. The teachers' unions are bitterly opposed to any reform that lessens their own power, and they have acquired enormous political and financial strength that they are prepared to devote to defeating any attempt to adopt a voucher system. The latest example is the defeat of Proposition 174 in California in 1993.

[RockinRight]

I have a couple friends (brothers) who were homeschooled, and their younger siblings as well.

One’s an Iraq veteran who came home last year with a wife and two kids (and the MSM tells us that “none of them have come home”) and the other is an engineer at Tinker Air Force Base in OK.

[sitetest]

Dear Lovebloggers,

“I think it should be noted that her oldest was in juvenile court, to which the judge ordered him to school.”

According to the blog cited by twinzmommy, http://principleddiscovery.com/ , the child in trouble is Ms. Mafi's nine year-old son with Aspergers’ Syndrome who hit a neighborhood girl and then was charged with assault.

Not sure, but this might not quite amount to a hill of beans.

Sounds like the judge is a totalitarian ass who will not receive in this life the punishment due him.

sitetest

[magslinger]

“Wissen” IIRC means to know and the online translation checks my memory.

[MrB]

Someone in the state legislature should propose impeachment procedings immediately.

This rogue judge crap has to stop.

[MrB]

I am sure there are some homeschoolers who are substandard

Sure, but I'd put the numbers up against the failure rate in public schools any day.

Typical of liberalism, though - they find one blemish on something they don't like, and get the gov't to outlaw it for everyone, ie, someone craps their drawers and a law is passed decreeing everyone must wear diapers.

[Balding_Eagle]

Here's something else left out of the story:

A threat by a Utah judge to take away a homeschooling mom's children if she failed to enroll them in public school, and make sure they were in attendance every day, has been escalated to the level of the state Legislature, according to a homeschooling leader

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=59263

[JayAr36]

Only one thing lower then a Lawyer - - - a Judge!

[montag813]

The people of Utah need to go to the court building now, surround it, and refuse to disperse until this “judge” is removed from the bench.

[montag813]

He must have missed the Heisman Trophy presentation!

Or 6 the last 10 National Spelling Bees.

[montag813]

"But my kids are not going to public school. They are not going where Jesus isn't welcome."

May the Lord bless this courageous woman. If someone knows of a fund I can donate to, to help her cause or legal bills, please let me know.

[Man50D]

Only one thing lower then a Lawyer - - - a Judge!

You should be more careful when making such a generalized statement. My father is a lawyer who has as much moral character as anyone. Every profession has bad and good members.

[goldstategop]

She had to flee with her children to escape the clutches of a lawless judge.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus