Posted on 03/05/2008 4:16:01 PM PST by wagglebee
LOS ANGELES, March 5, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Thousands of homeschoolers in California are left in legal limbo by an appeals court ruling that homeschooling is not a legal option in the state and that a family who has homeschooled all their children for years must enrol their two youngest in state or private schools. Justice H. Walter Croskey in a written opinion said, "California courts have held that under provisions in the Education Code, parents do not have a constitutional right to homeschool their children."
The sweeping February 29th ruling says that California law requires "persons between the ages of six and eighteen" to be in "public full-time day school," or a "private full-time day school" or "instructed by a tutor who holds a valid state teaching credential for the grade being taught".
The two youngest of Phillip and Mary Long's eight children must be enrolled in a state approved school. Phillip Long told WorldNetDaily, "We just don't want them teaching our children. They teach things that are totally contrary to what we believe. They put questions in our children's minds we don't feel they're ready for."
Mr. Long cited the state curriculum's inclusion of sex education, including its promotion of homosexuality as a normal lifestyle. "When they are much more mature, they can deal with these issues, alternative lifestyles, and such, or whether they came from primordial slop. At the present time it's my job to teach them the correct way of thinking," he said.
The Los Angeles-area family was targeted by Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services after one of the children reported "physical and emotional mistreatment by the children's father," according to documents submitted to the court.
The 2nd Appellate Court in Los Angeles agreed with the trial court decision that had found, "keeping the children at home deprived them of situations where they could interact with people outside the family".
"There are people who could provide help if something is amiss in the children's lives, and they could develop emotionally in a broader world than the parents' 'cloistered' setting," the ruling said.
Michael Smith, president of the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), said in a March 3 statement that the organization "strongly disputes this interpretation of California law" and is studying the decision.
The group called the ruling "a very bad decision" saying, "the opinion holds that homeschooling is not a legal option in California."
"If the opinion is followed, then California will have the most regressive law in the nation and homeschooling will be effectively banned, because the only legal way to homeschool will be for the parent to hold a teaching certificate. Parents should not have to attend a four-year college education program just to teach their own children."
Smith added, "California is now on the path to being the only state to deny the vast majority of homeschooling parents their fundamental right to teach their own children at home."
Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Back to School: Organization Gives Reasons to Consider Homeschooling
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/aug/06082407.html
Home Schoolers Concerned Over New Ontario Compulsory Attendance Law
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/feb/06020301.html
Three More Families Appeal for Help as Germany Continues Crackdown on Homeschooling Families
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/apr/07041609.html
Wow this is scary.
But of course. Then write a ruling that drives people back into public ISP programs out of fear rather than fact, while expanding the powers of CPS and truant officers to intervene illegally.
What's not to like? /s
Indirectly - yes. This ruling implies that even under a private school, home instruction is illegal unless the parent is a certified instructor.
Though that isn't what the law says. I'd say folks ar safe...for now.
I am telling you, that as a life long resident in CA I am ready to find the most conservative state and move!!! I can’t take this much longer!
What are you homeschoolers from CA going to do ??Will this be appealed?
Polly
Here are some of the legal issues. Not as safe as one would think, and my child is enrolled in a similar private school homeschooling program.
http://www.pji.org/resources/news/focusdetails.cfm?ID=PR080305a
We will too! Where is the most conservative State in the Union?
Ignoramus.
"There are people who could provide help if something is amiss in the children's lives, and they could develop emotionally in a broader world than the parents' 'cloistered' setting," the ruling said.
Bigoted ignoramus.
Our children might all be in public school today were it not for an improbable conflict more than seventy years ago involving unlikely participants in unexpected roles: the Ku Klux Klan and the Society of the Sisters of the Holy Name of Jesus and Mary. It led to the Supreme Court decision Pierce v. Society of Sisters, which is the cornerstone of parental rights in America today. The parties and actions that led to the decision form one of the most astonishing of history lessons, one that demonstrates how the monolithic public school system could be turned into an ideological tool for any opportunistic group.Worth an eternal re-bump.It happened in Oregon in 1922. A state ballot initiative passed requiring all children ages 8 to 16 to attend public and only public schools. The King Kleagle of the KKK hailed the victory by offering these congratulatory words: "[The Ku Klux Klan] with its white-robed sentinels keeping eternal watch, shall for all time, with its blazing torches as signal fires, stand guard on the outer walls of the Temple of Liberty, cry out the warning when danger appears and take its place in the front rank of defenders of the public schools."
See also Blaine Amendments. Born in bigotry, public schooling has a very nasty history in America.
“Honey, get my guns!!!!!”
And it was very easy to HS....in CA.
IF, this is true....it's a sad day. But, not all that surprising...
You gotta read this
True, but I'd like someone to tell me how mandatory, government schooling can be reconciled with the "free exercise" clause of the First Amendment. Compulsory schooling has been unconstitutional from its inception. It's only becoming moreso.
Always heard though...it all depended on the school district that you were in. Apparently we still flew under the radar....
I was going to say that teaching degrees are a friggin joke, but then I realized, the same can be said about most law degrees.
So it begins. The state owns your children.
"Parents do not have a constitutional right to home school their children" Justice H. Walter Croskey wrote in a Feb. 28 opinion for the 2nd District Court of Appeals.
"The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people."
The Judge should take out his copy of the constitution a little more often.
Awesome article, thanks for posting. Pierce v. Society of Sisters seems directly on point in the case of this CA ruling as well. It’s hideous if the government makes a grab for our children.
It's really that bad in California already?
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