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 ...
Oh they know better - they just hope parents will continue to be in the dark about the law that says just the opposite - the SCOTUS ruling that PARENTS have the last say in how and where their children are educated. (see my post # 20)
That's why it behooves parents who home school to connect with local Home School Associations. They have fought these things through and have access to legal backup for any parent illegally harassed by the Commissars.
No, not all home schooled kids get the best of education - but I've seen what is taught to our kids in public schools - and "it is not impressive."
“There is something strange about this story and why it got to this level is beyond me.”
It seems strange because you aren’t familiar with the case.
The parents were in court because of a matter with their older son, he had gotten in some trouble totally separate from school truancy.
While in court, someone from the court produced paperwork that the school had filed showing that the parents did not have their children in school and had not submitted paperwork. Apparently the school filed the paperwork with the court but did not notify the parents of the filing. So when they went to court they were surprised at this extra issue they had to deal with.
The judge, who made remarks saying that no one should ever be homeschooling their children, said that she was in violation and must enroll her children. She protested that she had sent the paperwork this year as she had every year in the past but she didn’t have a receipt of delivery.
The judge said he didn’t care about any of that, he said that she had to enroll her children or Child Services would come and take them from her.
So, the only strange thing going on here is that the judge was being totally unreasonable because he wanted to impose his own will in this situation.
What is a “wife swap homeschool student”?
ping
“No, not all home schooled kids get the best of education - but I’ve seen what is taught to our kids in public schools - and ‘it is not impressive.’”
How true that is.
The thing is, for every homeschooling “failure,” it’s easy enough to point to a hundred successes. Conversely, for every public school success, it’s easy enough to point to a hundred failures.
The public schools struggle to GRADUATE even 70% of their charges, and as we all know many of those “graduates” leave their public school experiences barely literate or numerate.
It’s ironic that we give oversight of the successful (homeschoolers) to the failed (public school administrators).
sitetest
Good. I wasn’t aware of this ruling. It’s just darned lucky that the case was brought in 1925, as I can’t imagine today’s Supreme Court issuing a ruling so totally “anti-state power”.
Excellent points. North Carolina has very modest requirements for conducting home schools.
Here in North Carolina, we're under the "Division of Non-Public Education." For some reason, the education bureaucracy in this state reserves most of its hostility for charter schools.
There is a tv show called Wife Swap and occasionally they have a homeschool student that the “new” wife must educate them. It is a funny tv show.
In Maryland, we’re overseen by the local county school system. In my county, there is an office that reviews student portfolios twice per year. The head of the office is a former public school teacher. The folks he has doing the reviews are mainly retired public school teachers.
When he first took the job, he got a bit of a reputation for being a pain. But I guess he figured out that most homeschoolers do a very good job most days, and nowadays, the portfolio review experience is usually pretty easy, and occasionally pleasant. He really has just about the easiest, most pleasant job in the school system, and I think he knows it. No use rocking the boat.
This fall, because of our younger son’s illness, we missed a lot of school, and frankly, our younger son had very little for the physical education requirement. It’s tough to do phys ed from a hospital bed. My wife called this gentleman, and he was very understanding, telling us, don’t worry, your portfolio will still be accepted, it’s amazing you did what you did, considering the circumstances.
It still grates on me that the public school system has oversight over homeschoolers, but in practice, the current fellow who heads our county office makes the burden as light as possible.
sitetest
Ya, if you don’t cite a government study on the percentage of foster children who’ve been abused by their foster parents, then it never happens.
Well, it should grate, because you could have ended up with an overseer who raised a huge stink over your not having a complete P.E. program done with a child who was hospitalized.
You appear to be suggesting that this is significant data. How odd.
No significant data except to say that it is very funny seeing the new mother trying to homeschool that is all.
I’m sure it is! I can just see my Pat looking down his superior nose and saying, “You don’t speak Greek?!?” and Tom wanting her to hold the snake, and Anoreth and Bill doing one of their “Screwed-Up Shakespeare” performances.
You’re judging homeschooling based on how a ‘wifeswapping’ mother teaches?
Seesh. I hope you’re not an election judge.
“Well, it should grate, because you could have ended up with an overseer who raised a huge stink over your not having a complete P.E. program done with a child who was hospitalized.”
Precisely.
The vindication of one’s rights shouldn't require reliance on the good graces of some damned government bureaucrat.
sitetest
Another example of how this week was a bellweather week for the loss of democracy & freedom in our republic.
Quite true - but it does, in many different areas of life. Our country wasn't supposed to be like this.
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