Posted on 12/20/2007 9:12:50 PM PST by wintertime
(snip)
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 an 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. After the New Year she 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 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.
The confrontation developed after Mafi, still married but separated from her husband, already had begun her homeschooling plan for the 2007-2008 year, for which she had received a district exemption as required in Utah. She was told she was being accused of four counts of failing to abide by the state's compulsory education law, with a penalty of up to six months in jail on each count, because the district alleged she had not submitted a required affidavit for the long-completed 2006-2007 school year.
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(Excerpt) Read more at worldnetdaily.com ...
Yet another case of judicial tyranny. A judge drives a family from home at Christmas because a mother will not submit to the Government Schools and the NEA.
Just the other day I was reading about the family in trouble in Germany and ......
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There sounds like there is much more to this story. WND isn’t exactly an unbiased source.
the state law is illegal, Years ago,in Utah, they shot a father - dead - in the back while he was trying to keep his kids from being taken, because he was home schooling,
In Maine, 25 years ago, they would take your kids for homeschooling - and NO exemptions.
I wont go into the years we fought this all the way to Washington - (we also had an "underground railroad" to get parents safely to Canada with their kids when seizure was eminent.
We fought for years.
NOW, Maine is one of the best, it not the best, Home Schooling state - NO PERMISSION required. (Only thing that has to be done is periodic testing.)
And the Home Schooling Network is great.
Now the Law???
WE had some good Constitutional lawyers on our side:
Supreme Court Ruling : Pierce v. Society of Sisters (docket #: 583) (1925)
The Compulsory Education of 1922 unreasonably interferes with the liberty of parents and guardians to direct the upbringing and education of children under their control
Issue
Whether the Compulsory Education Act of 1922, which requires every parent, guardian, or other person having control or charge of custody of a child between 8 and 16 years to send him to a public violates a parent’s right to choose education for his child.
Lower Court Ruling
Issued a preliminary injunction against the enforcement of the Compulsory Education Act of 1922. at:
http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/faclibrary/case.aspx?id=1614
Also see:
http://www.hslda.org/docs/nche/000000/00000075.asp
I thought we had established this pretty well across the country = guess not.
It sounds like there is much more to your post. Care to elaborate...
I just want to clear one story up. I'd never heard the story of the Utah father, so I looked it up: John Singer According to that article, he was shot because he refused to release another man's four children. (He'd "married" the man's wife.) I just want it on the record that most of us don't fit that image. I despise the man's lifestyle and beliefs.
The Utah mom has fled the state with her children...
I always sent any approval paperwork by Certified Mail, Return Receipt Requested. When I got that little green card, the ball was in THEIR court.;o)
This is a potentially national shame, with overtones of 1984’s “Big Brother”.
Get off her back, creeps; she submitted your damned afadavit!
Here's an update.
Under the religious exemption, testing is not even required, but we do it anyway just to see how our son is doing compared to the "average." Also, it is a "once and done" thing. There is no requirement to re-apply for the exemption in subsequent years so long as we maintain residency anywhere in Virginia. If we should move away (not likely) then return, we would be required to re-apply. It effectively makes our son invisible to the state as pertains to his education through High School.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Ok,,,Let’s say there is “much more to this story”.
If so, then the judge should specifically address the rest of the story and NOT beat up on homeschooling.
It wouldn’t be the first time that people have had to flee a state over their moral or religious convictions.
gotcha - thanks
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