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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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To: wintertime
Dear wintertime,

I’m not sure in which county you lived. Different counties enforce the laws differently. And things change over time.

I live in Anne Arundel County, and not 10 years ago, portfolio review was a pain. But a couple of things happened. First, someone sued them over some of the policies that they were pursuing, and the county and state, once they saw they were facing a big loss in court, decided to settle the case amicably. Second, the guy who is in charge in our county, I guess, figured out that life can be easy. It doesn’t have to be hard. I think he figured out that he had potentially the easiest, most pleasant job in the school system - reviewing homeschoolers. All he had to do was recognize that the vast majority of homeschoolers do a very good job pretty much nearly every day.

“If the government schoolers are below average on their standardized exams, I think the government teachers, parents, and kids should be forced ( under threat of police action ) to report to a HOMESCHOOLER!”

LOL. I proposed that some time ago. Let the failed report to the successful, not vice versa. ;-)

“Please remember that behind every government teacher and school bureaucrat stands an armed policeman with real bullets in his gun on the hip!”

That’s true. That’s why I stated in my last post that I’d prefer to do away with compulsory education and school attendance laws.

But some people don’t think that ordinary Americans can be trusted with that sort of freedom.


sitetest

61 posted on 01/13/2008 3:24:46 PM PST by sitetest (If Roe is not overturned, no unborn child will ever be protected in law.)
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To: sitetest; wintertime
But some people don’t think that ordinary Americans can be trusted with that sort of freedom.

Part of the problem is that, as in so many other areas of life, the cost of irresponsibility has been shifted to the taxpayer. I don't know whether the chicken or the egg came first, but when we started allowing the government to "help" the unsuccessful, we made it a cheap option to be unsuccessful.

This is why my insanely radical proposal for education, employment, medical care, eating, whichever and whatall, is "Private pay or private charity."

62 posted on 01/13/2008 6:46:38 PM PST by Tax-chick ("How inscrutable are His judgments and how unsearchable His ways!")
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To: Tax-chick

Part of the problem is that, as in so many other areas of life, the cost of irresponsibility has been shifted to the taxpayer.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Exactly! Government education is welfare!

What’s next? Compulsory attendance grocery stores because some parents don’t or can’t feed their kids? Why not compulsory occupancy of cement block government apartment housing because some parents can’t and won’t properly house their kids. Should we insist on government clothing because parents of some kids can’t or won’t buy clothes.


63 posted on 01/14/2008 5:59:54 AM PST by wintertime (Good ideas win! Why? Because people are not stupid.)
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To: wintertime

Those are good examples, but I was thinking of the “cost” of not having an education. A person who can’t or won’t support himself is supported by the taxpayers. This gives people the justification (with some logic) to insist that the government has the responsibility to force education on everyone.

In many different ways, taxpayer-funded “services” are used as an excuse to control people. The conservative approach would be to eliminate the services and let people do for themselves or appeal to voluntary charities.


64 posted on 01/14/2008 6:14:09 AM PST by Tax-chick ("How inscrutable are His judgments and how unsearchable His ways!")
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To: maine-iac7; CatQuilt; ohhhh

“Do you have numbers on that?

????”

I can’t speak for CatQuilt, but my immediate reaction to ohhhh’s post was to question how often judges take kids from “good” homes and put them in foster homes. There might occasionally be some mistakes (just as there are mistakes in every single facet of our law enforcement and judicial systems), but it seems to me that the vast majority of kids who are taken away are living in some pretty CRAPPY homes with crappy or non-existent parents.


65 posted on 01/14/2008 6:16:56 AM PST by gracesdad
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To: gracesdad
it seems to me that the vast majority of kids who are taken away are living in some pretty CRAPPY homes with crappy or non-existent parents.

One would tend to naturally think that is the case - until one gets into the inner workings of the whole scenario and sees both sides from the inside, as I did when I, my organization and net-worked organizations fought gov't intrusion into homes/families.

I even had state legislators who would give me a heads up on hearings with the DHS and quietly invite me to attend - much to the chagrin of the state lackeys.

I remember a public hearing where someone asked the rep of the Dept of Human Services if it were true that 86% of the cases where the dept had taken a child from their home on 'suspected' charges turned out to be in error and the child returned.

the answer: "Well, yes, but we feel that it's better to err on the side of..."

So, it's okay, with the state operatives, to forever traumatize a child and rip away their vital feeling of security in their homes and in their parents ability to keep them safe in their homes, in overwhelming unwarranted numbers - and that isn't seen as child abuse in and of itself?

But here's the real kicker, folks. (Wake up call.)

For most states, the Foster Care System is their "Slush Fund" - for every child they can get into Foster Care, the dept draws x-amount of dollars into it's coffers - much more than is paid the Foster Parents.

As long as this profit system tied to the Foster Parent program exists, there will be great abuses.

You may also become aware that, in many of the cases where a CLEAR CUT danger to a child is apparent, they drag their heals until something tragic takes place.

There's also the component of just who become Foster Parents and why.

There are many wonderful people who become Foster Parents and for all the right reasons - and they have done a great job.

However, there are many less that stellar Foster Parents who do it for the money - and their are far too many cases of abused/murdered children in these homes.

Add to that the destructive practice of a child being tossed and torn between several 'homes' during their 'incarceration' with the state - destroying any chance of stability or trust, security and a feeling of being really loved = and many of these children fare little better than in the homes they were taken from.

We tend to think of the 'case workers' as caring, dedicated people - while the facts are that, tho' some are, many are dedicated to a good pay check and the best benefits in the state.

The children are caught in the cross-hairs.

We also need to remember: there is little the "state" or the federal gov't can do better than individuals. After all, who IS the gov't but a group of other individuals.

66 posted on 01/14/2008 11:51:22 AM PST by maine-iac7 (",,,but you can't fool all of the people all the time" LINCOLN)
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To: Tax-chick

Adolf Hitler and the Nazis made homeschooling illegal. That law hasn’t changed in Germany, as I’m sure you know. Socialists and fascists cannot afford to have education independent of the state.

It’s only a matter of time.


67 posted on 01/14/2008 5:41:20 PM PST by NCSteve (I am not arguing with you - I am telling you. -- James Whistler)
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To: Man50D
Utah residents can and should impeach this judge! He has abused his position, and needs to be removed from the bench.

Take him out, before he does something much more egregious, Utah! You've had your warning; do not turn deaf ears to it.

68 posted on 02/10/2008 9:57:00 AM PST by Constitution1st (Never, never, never quit - Winston Churchill)
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To: maine-iac7

Cannot tell you how often I am hearing people talk about it being time for another Revolution or Tea Party. It is becoming the talk of the nation.


69 posted on 02/10/2008 9:58:02 AM PST by Constitution1st (Never, never, never quit - Winston Churchill)
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