Posted on 06/13/2003 12:26:29 PM PDT by pabianice
"We have legal custody of the children and we will do with them as we see fit," DSS worker Susan Etscovitz told the Bryants in their Gale Street home. "They are minors and they do what we tell them to do!"
WALTHAM, MA -- A legal battle over two home-schooled children exploded into a seven-hour standoff yesterday, when they refused to take a standardized test ordered by the Department of Social Services.
George Nicholas Bryant, 15, and Nyssa Bryant, 13, stood behind their parents, Kim and George, as police and DSS workers attempted to collect the children at 7:45 a.m. DSS demanded that the two complete a test to determine their educational level.
After a court order was issued by Framingham Juvenile Court around 1 p.m., the children were driven by their parents to a Waltham hotel.
Again, they refused to take the test.
"The court order said that the children must be here. It said nothing about taking the test," said George Bryant.
The second refusal came after an emotion-filled morning for the family, when DSS workers sternly demanded the Bryants comply with their orders.
"We have legal custody of the children and we will do with them as we see fit," DSS worker Susan Etscovitz told the Bryants in their Gale Street home. "They are minors and they do what we tell them to do."
Four police officers were also at the scene and attempted to coax the Bryants to listen to the DSS worker.
"We are simply here to prevent a breach of the peace," said Waltham Youth Officer Detective James Auld. "We will will not physically remove the children."
Yesterday's events are the continuation of a six-year legal battle between the family and Waltham Public Schools and the state.
The Bryants contend that the city and state do not have the legal right to force their children to take standardized tests, even though DSS workers have threatened to take their children from them.
"There have been threats all along. Most families fall to that bullying by the state and the legal system," said George Bryant.
"But this has been a six-year battle between the Waltham Public Schools and our family over who is in control of the education of our children," Bryant continued. "In the end the law of this state will protect us."
The Bryant children have never attended public school.
Both sides agree that the children are in no way abused mentally, physically, sexually or emotionally, but legal custody of the children was taken from Kim and George Bryant in December 2001. The children will remain under the legal custody of DSS until their 16th birthdays.
The parents have been ruled as unfit because they did not file educational plans or determine a grading system for the children, two criteria of Waltham Public School's home schooling policy.
"We do not believe in assessing our children based on a number or letter. Their education process is their personal intellectual property," said Bryant.
George Bryant said he was arrested six years ago, after not attending a meeting that the city contends he was summoned to. The meeting was called by the Waltham School Department for his failure to send his children to school.
"We want these issues aired in the open, in public. The school system and DSS have fought to keep this behind closed doors," said Bryant.
Superintendent of Schools Susan Parrella said she was unaware of yesterday's incident and that, currently the school department approves of the education plan filed by DSS for the Bryant children.
"An acceptable home school plan is in place right now," said Parrella. "I was not aware of any testing occurring today."
The Bryant children freely admit that they have no intention of taking a test.
"We don't want to take the test. We have taken them before and I don't think they are a fair assessment of what we know," said Nyssa Bryant. "And no one from DSS has ever asked us what we think."
Kenneth Pontes, area director of DSS, denied that workers have never talked to the children privately, but admitted that this type of case isn't often seen by his office.
"This is an unusual case. Different school systems require different regulations for home-schooled children. Waltham requires testing," said Pontes.
Pontes said that a possibility exists that the children will be removed from their home, but that was a last course of action.
"No one wants these children to be put in foster homes. The best course of action would for (the Bryants) to instruct the children to take the test," said Etscovitz.
The Bryant family is due in Framingham District Court this morning, to go before a juvenile court judge. According to DSS, this session will determine what their next course of action will be and if the children will be removed from the Bryants' home.
"These are our children and they have and always will be willing participants in their education," said Kim Bryant.
Adolph Hitler said….”Let me control the textbooks and I will control the state. The state will take youth and give to youth it’s own education and it’s own upbringing. Your child belongs to us already….what are you?”
For starters, if they fail, they get placed with a foster family and registered in to public school, during their teen years.
I've got a real problem with that comment ..
All this over a test????
I have a friend whose sister deliberately drove her car into a wall to collect the insurance. She was just unhappy that she kept having to take the car in for repairs. It does happen. This isn't to put down the serious car owners out there.
| Compulsory Attendance Ages: | 6 by December 31 of that school year to 16 years of age. Mass. Regs. Code tit. 603, § 8.02. Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 76, § 1. |
| Required Days of Instruction: | None required, but school districts will use the public school's required number of days and hours of instruction time for purposes of comparison, i.e., 180 days; 900 hours at the elementary level and 990 hours at the secondary level. Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 71, §§ 1, 4; Mass. Regs. Code tit. 603, § 27.03 and .04. |
| Required Subjects: | Reading, writing, English language and grammar, geography, arithmetic, drawing, music, history and constitution of United States, duties of citizenship, health (including CPR), physical education, and good behavior. Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 71, § 1. |
Home School Statute: None.
Alternative Statutes Allowing for Home Schools: Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 76, § 1. A "child who is otherwise being instructed in a manner approved in advance by the superintendent or the school committee."
Home visits are unconstitutional if imposed against the parent's objection. HSLDA challenged a school district's policy mandating home visits. As a result, the Supreme Judicial Court ruled that "the school committee ... cannot, in the absence of consent, require home visits, as a condition to the approval of home education plans." Brunelle v. Lynn Public Schools, 428 Mass. 512, 702 N.E.2d 1182 (1998). The court also ruled that "the approval of the home school proposal must not be conditioned on requirements that are not essential to the state interest in assuring that all children be educated." Home visits are not essential.
Teacher Qualifications: None.
Standardized Tests: Parents have two choices (according to the Charles case--see 1(d) above): 1) A parent could submit standardized test results (school officials may insist that a neutral third party administer the test); or, 2) Parents could submit an alternative form of assessment. This typically consists of progress reports, dated work samples, portfolio review, assessment by a certified teacher of the parent's choice.
Actually no they don't ..
I'm wondering just how DSS thinks they can force these kids to take the test?
My guess is that the average welfare queen would not want the kids around to interrupt her TV viewing. The local subpar school makes a wonderful babysitter. Say these children were given this test and failed, what is the next step? If are taken out of the home and put into the local public school where they fail the same test what happens? Nothing happens and the tenured teachers continue to get their salaries.
Worst case scenario is that the kids are placed in fotercare with a couple who make their living warehousing kids for the state. They are abused and raped in fostercare , maybe get AIDS, maybe get pregnant, who knows. After a couple of years of fighting the system and jumping through DSS's hoops, the now bankrupt couple ( legal fees are expensive) is TPR'd because they refuse to comply with some egregious demand of CSS, like "Get a divorce" or something equally violent. The kids are now freed for adoption by complete strangers, and the state will realize the adoption bounty made law by Adoption 2000 ( Clinton's doing.) Your children grow up to hate you, to refuse to have anything to do with you, because they have been brainwashed to accept the state's version of events. Worst case scenario: Your children , who you love more than life itself, grow up to be complete strangers, and also grow up to be individuals profoundly damaged by the experiecne of being taken from their parents and homes , placed in fostercare and the adopted to complete aliens. Bad enough for you? Happens every day
If you can provide documentation of this, I would be eternally grateful. Please freepmail me.
I don't think I said it could never happen. My closest personal experience is with a friend's daughter. She was removed from middle school for homeschooling because she was failing. She was a bright, creative kid--we knew her well--who didn't "fit" with the other (moo) kids. She was the object of much taunting and battery.
Her mother, trying as hard as she could...without the help of the girl's father (shame) wasn't able to get things rolling. Back to public high school....more failure. However, much to the mother's credit, she arranged for alternative homeschooling after the girl's second withdrawal. This young lady, grabbing for a 1400 on her SAT , approaching Calculus ,and already solicited by several institutions, is under the tutalage of my wife. The affair is probably not legal. The girl is solidly in full scholarship territory. She's already won an award (monetary) from the Rand institute for her writing on defense of liberty. So, while it may happen that some parents may fall short of homeschooling effectively, it is manifest that a caring parent will see to things.
Now maybe the brother was right on in his perception. And he took action he deemed appropriate. The state didn't automatically consider his sister suspect. That's how it oughtta be. But , again, what assurance is there that the kids will be better off in PS?? Do they offer a guarantee? I teach reading to lots of illiterate HS grads.
Is it standardized testing of the parents choosing, like the Stanford or Iowa, or is the only 'allowed' one like the inadequate state test?
But, when did it become our country's creed to always play to the lowest common denominator? Millions of students at public schools fall through the cracks. What have we done to stop that ?
Millions of children who attend public school were raised by day care workers... what have we done about that? We let it be the parent's choice.. we don't test infants to make sure they are being raised with love and understanding , a needed foundation for high IQ, not yet anyway.
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