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Homeschooler's trial date abandoned
WorldNetDaily.com ^ | January 12, 2008

Posted on 01/12/2008 4:52:07 AM PST by Man50D

A trial date for a homeschooling mom from Utah who fled the state when a judge threatened to take away custody of her children has been vacated, officials have confirmed.

A lawyer with the Home School Legal Defense Association, which actually became involved in the case after it was well advanced, told WND that parties in the case against Denise Mafi by stipulation had vacated a trial date scheduled this week, and no new court date has been set.

Mafi had fled her Carbon County, Utah, home after a judge had ordered her to enroll her children with a public school within a day or he would remove then from her custody.

Mafi, who at that time had had counsel from a public defender, abandoned her home, furniture and other possessions to leave Utah and seek refuge in another state, where she is getting her four children involved in another homeschooling program.

Mafi told WND she and her children had packed up their essentials – clothes and homeschool materials – and spent more than 50 hours on a bus trip to an undisclosed part of the country.

Charges against her stemmed from what she has described as a paperwork mixup. She says she faxed a required notification of her homeschooling plans to her local school district; officials there say they never received it.

While Mafi's case isn't yet fully resolved, officials with the HSLDA confirm that another situation with similar circumstances was successfully resolved with the case being dismissed.

In the second case, an unidentified homeschooling mother was facing criminal counts for failing to enroll her daughter in a local public school.

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


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: publikskoolz
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1 posted on 01/12/2008 4:52:08 AM PST by Man50D
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To: Man50D

Perhaps if there was a single word about schooling being a duty of the state in the Constitution these judges would have a leg to stand on in denying liberty to these families. There is NO such Constitutional mandate for the public schooling of American children. Many of our most productive citizens in the past, such as Thomas Edison, were home schooled.


2 posted on 01/12/2008 4:59:04 AM PST by kittymyrib
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To: Man50D; wolfpat; NCSteve; rrrod

I saw this in HSLDA’s e-mail update earlier this week. The outcome is about what I expected when HSLDA became involved with a non-member. It’s quite common for school officials at all levels to put their own spin on the wording of the law, as this district unilaterally decided that “annual” notification meant “before the beginning of the public school year.”

(Update on the Utah homeschooler case, guys.)


3 posted on 01/12/2008 5:05:35 AM PST by Tax-chick ("Go ahead and water the lawn - my give-a-damn's busted.")
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To: kittymyrib

Bingo! The nail has been appropriately impacted on the proper surface by the hardened steel striking device.

There is NO constitutional mandate authorizing the Federal government to be involved in the education of our children. Same applies to the State constitutions with which I’m familiar, but that is not an exhaustive list.

Contrary to the views of the DemLibs, particularly the Hildebeast...it takes parents to raise (and educate) a child.


4 posted on 01/12/2008 5:35:39 AM PST by PubliusMM (RKBA; a matter of fact, not opinion...)
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To: PubliusMM

Many state constitutions define and require a government school system.


5 posted on 01/12/2008 5:44:13 AM PST by Tax-chick ("Go ahead and water the lawn - my give-a-damn's busted.")
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To: Man50D

Dictaorship by judges under the marxist guise of the state loving the children by taking them from good homes and putting them in foster homes where so many of them are abused by theior loving state nannies.


6 posted on 01/12/2008 5:49:21 AM PST by ohhhh (Republicans are now liberals, Democrats are Marxists. Lord, help conservatives.)
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To: ohhhh

Do you have numbers on that?


7 posted on 01/12/2008 5:55:56 AM PST by CatQuilt (Lover of cats =^..^= and quilts)
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To: Man50D

To me this could have been resolved if the mother had driven the papers to the school after it was noticed that the school never got the fax. Even though I went to Catholic School, the public school was only a few miles from my house. My mother could easily taken papers over to the school had she homeschooled me. There is something strange about this story and why it got to this level is beyond me.


8 posted on 01/12/2008 5:59:15 AM PST by napscoordinator
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To: DaveLoneRanger

Ping


9 posted on 01/12/2008 6:05:16 AM PST by dfwddr (Duncan Hunter '08 -- the real thing.)
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To: All

The public school monopoly fears the Homeschoolers more than the private schools.


10 posted on 01/12/2008 6:16:09 AM PST by UCFRoadWarrior (Duncan Hunter: The Man Who Should Be President)
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To: All

The public school monopoly fears the Homeschoolers more than the private schools.


11 posted on 01/12/2008 6:16:33 AM PST by UCFRoadWarrior (Duncan Hunter: The Man Who Should Be President)
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To: kittymyrib
"Perhaps if there was a single word about schooling being a duty of the state in the Constitution these judges would have a leg to stand on in denying liberty to these families. There is NO such Constitutional mandate for the public schooling of American children."

You're mixing apples and oranges. There is no requirenment (nor allowance for) any educational role for the FEDERAL government.

State and local governments are a whole different ball of wax--either of them can set any requirements for education that they wish, provided that the voters support such. Thus far, most voters at those two levels have largely either supported or allowed home schooling.

But make no mistake about it--individual states "do" have the power to set up any educational policy that they wish, with VERY few restrictions.

12 posted on 01/12/2008 6:18:03 AM PST by Wonder Warthog (The Hog of Steel-NRA)
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To: Tax-chick
Many state constitutions define and require a government school system.

Maybe so - for all children are supposed to have ACCESS to schooling.

However, such rulings DO NOT require that all children attend Government schools.

Know Why?

Such requirement would be against the law.

What Law?

The one passed down by the SCOTUS in 1925:

In 1925, the Supreme Court decided the Pierce v. Society of Sisters6 case, thereby supporting Meyer’s recognition of the parents’ right to direct the religious upbringing of their children and to control the process of their education. In Pierce, the Supreme Court struck down an Oregon compulsory education law which, in effect, required attendance of all children between ages eight and sixteen at public schools...

I had thought this issue had been settled in the US...but then, there are a lot of Socialists in power across the country.

When I decided to move back to my home state of Maine some 28 years ago, to assure my daughter, then 5, would not be subjected to the California Government Indoctrination Camps, aka Public Schools, I was dismayed to find that the same curriculum, including the under-the-radar, anti-family books and teachings that families were mostly unaware of as they aren't listed as part of the Curriculum, were here also.

Fortunately, that same year, a small Christian School opened just one block away...

But parents here were being jailed, children abducted by the state, for 'home schooling.'

We fought some long and hard battles for several years - but as a result, Maine is now one of the best states in the country for home schooling...and parents are NOT required to get permission from the state commissars.

However, it behooves parents who home school to align with one of the Home School Associations. This not only provides invaluable advice but legal help should it be needed. It also gives wonderful opportunities for home schooled kids to get together for joint activities and exercises that far exceed anything they'd get in public school. (This, the state now realizes and after getting their noses bloodied enough times, now leave the home schoolers alone. The only requirement is periodic testing to assure the kids are getting an education.)

Churches are tailor made for small neighborhood schools. They have the classrooms, the kitchen and bath facilities, and would return education to the old, small-community schooling, proven to provide better and safer education. It also eliminates, for the most part, the need to bus - and being trapped on buses for up to 2 hours a day. The parents are not shoved aside but have access and input.

The Christian School my daughter attended from 1st grade to 10th (the school shut down) was not my denomination, but FAR preferable to the government warehouses, aka, schools.

It's time for the churches to step up and provide a safe haven for His children. I believe it's a Mandate that is not being fulfilled...

13 posted on 01/12/2008 6:29:01 AM PST by maine-iac7 (",,,but you can't fool all of the people all the time" LINCOLN)
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To: CatQuilt; ohhhh
Do you have numbers on that?

????

14 posted on 01/12/2008 6:31:02 AM PST by maine-iac7 (",,,but you can't fool all of the people all the time" LINCOLN)
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To: Man50D

I would call this persecution.


15 posted on 01/12/2008 6:36:47 AM PST by freekitty ((May the eagles long fly our beautiful and free American sky.))
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To: kittymyrib
There is NO such Constitutional mandate for the public schooling of American children.

I agree with you, but the opposition - and this is stated in several 'school law' texts - believes there is no fundamental right to home school or that there is no right for a parent to withhold his or her child from public school. It's scary, but this is how many school administrators and their counterparts in the courts, approach the situation.
16 posted on 01/12/2008 6:36:48 AM PST by AD from SpringBay (We have the government we allow and deserve.)
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To: napscoordinator
There is something strange about this story and why it got to this level is beyond me.

I would guess that you have not been involved in the long struggle of home schooling parents for the past 25-30 years = or you would 'guess' that the 'strange' part comes from the nanny state and it's henchmen, activist judges?

Or are you a member of "The Elite" - i.e., those in the system who 'know better' than parents and 'ordinary' citizens how to school and how to raise their children.

(You might also want to research this story and get the whole scoop before you suspicion that the parent must be the one in error?)

17 posted on 01/12/2008 6:37:17 AM PST by maine-iac7 (",,,but you can't fool all of the people all the time" LINCOLN)
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To: UCFRoadWarrior
The public school monopoly fears the Homeschoolers more than the private schools

double posted - that's OKAY - deserves to be repeated.


18 posted on 01/12/2008 6:39:13 AM PST by maine-iac7 (",,,but you can't fool all of the people all the time" LINCOLN)
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To: maine-iac7

Or are you a member of “The Elite”

Did you read my post where I stated I went to Catholic School? In my entire life, I never stepped for in a public elementary or high school. Yes college I did. So elite hardly. I am more the parent’s choice as long as the homeschool curriculum is serious. I see how wife swap homeschool students are taught and it is not impressive.


19 posted on 01/12/2008 6:45:11 AM PST by napscoordinator
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To: Wonder Warthog
make no mistake about it--individual states "do" have the power to set up any educational policy that they wish, with VERY few restrictions.

Maybe the "power" but not the legal right to go against the ruling of the SCOTUS - as they are finding out, one by one.

In 1925, the Supreme Court decided the Pierce v. Society of Sisters6 case, thereby supporting Meyer’s recognition of the parents’ right to direct the religious upbringing of their children and to control the process of their education.

In Pierce, the Supreme Court struck down an Oregon compulsory education law which, in effect, required attendance of all children between ages eight and sixteen at public schools. The Court declared,

Under the doctrine of Meyer v. Nebraska, we think it entirely plain that the Act of 1922 unreasonably interferes with the liberty of parents and guardians to direct the upbringing and education of children.

In addition to upholding the right of parents to direct the upbringing and the education of their children, Pierce also asserts the parents’ fundamental right to keep their children free from government standardization.

The fundamental theory of liberty upon which all governments in this Union repose excluded any general power of the state to standardize its children by forcing them to accept instruction from public teachers only. The child is not the mere creature of the state; those who nurture him and direct his destiny have the right and the high duty, to recognize and prepare him for additional obligations.

That should be plain enough for anyone to understand - even if they've been subjected to the watered down 'education' of the Government Indoctrination Camps.

I am waiting for parents to also wake up to this part of the SCOTUS ruling "Pierce also asserts the parents’ fundamental right to keep their children free from government standardization."

That means that a great deal of the mandated curriculum of the schools across this country are illegal...

20 posted on 01/12/2008 6:50:19 AM PST by maine-iac7 (",,,but you can't fool all of the people all the time" LINCOLN)
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