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.
Screw the law!! If it were protecting you, DSS workers wouldn't be threatening to take your children. This is disgusting.
Adolph Hitler said it on November 6, 1933 speaking about the schools and their indoctrination of the Hilterjugend (Hitler Youth Corps).
It was Adolph Hitler who said, "Let me control the textbooks, and I will control the state."
Norman Thomas, Socialist and member of the Civil Liberties Union, boldly told the world, "The American people will never knowingly adopt Socialism, but under the name of liberalism, they will adopt every fragment of the Socialist program until one day America will be a Socialist nation without ever knowing how it happened."
"Give me your four year olds," said Lenin "and in a generation I will build a Socialist state."
Lesbian author Patricia Warren, boldly told the gay and lesbian community, "It is the FIRST fact of civilization that-- whoever captures the kids - owns the future."
In his book ‘The Science Of Power’, Benjamin Kidd wrote, ". Give us the young. -- Give us the young and We will create a new mind and a new Earth in a SINGLE generation."
Ross L. Finny, a socialist PhD in one of his books tells us this; "Everything depends on passing out the expert opinions of the social scientists to the masses of the people; the schools are the only adequate agency for this function."
Lastly, the American Humanist Association understands the importance of capturing the children – for they have written: "In order to capture this nation, one has to totally remove moral and spiritual values and absolutes from the thinking of the child. The child has to think that there is no standard of right and wrong, that truth is relative, and that diversity is the only absolute to be gained."
CyberCowboy777 --this is an excellent post.
As Rev. Ray Moore notes in his book ...Let My Children Go: Why Parents Must Remove Their Children From Public Schools Now--excerpts from the Counsel of Chalcedon
Why is abandonment of state schools necessary? Can't we just "fix" the problem of public education with better ideas, more money, more teachers, new technology, etc, etc? More and more Christians are beginning to understand they the clear answer to this question is an emphatic "No.!" State schools, according to Rev. Moore, are built upon a socialist, humanist-oriented model. Socialism, from its very foundation, is not compatible with Christianity and a free market economy. Government education's socialist model is, however, a brilliant means by which to inculcate the hearts and minds of children toward the goals and purposes of the state.
Thus we begin to see a battle line drawn by those who wish to indoctrinate children toward the goals of state education, versus those who wish to educate and point children toward their Creator to fulfill His purposes in their lives. And with Christ, we must keep in mind; there is no neutral ground.
Really?
I do not recalled any litmus test being required. And prolly the wife and I would be out of step with 99% of homeschoolers; she is Catholic and I am Orthodox.
In fact, Julianne was invited to leave a pro-life abortion alternative organization, when she would not sign one of those "66 Books in the Bible, period" sgreements.
Fine. That was their right. But, I have seen nothing exclusionary from HSLDA. Whatever. I consider membership in HSLDA as basic as medical insurance.
I don't think the HSLDA would take this case because it is a family that decided to knowingly break the law. Also, from what I understand, the HSLDA does take cases regarding non-members.
Great! BUT that is NOT what is in place in the state in the thread. What the law says NOW is what must be upheld.
Ditto to that nmh. As a homeschooler I don't understand the uproar about this. These people are knowingly breaking the law. What if we all did that? There are other ways to go about getting laws changed...this family sounds pretty petty. I guess they think it's okay to raise the kids to be lawbreakers?
Could it be that DSS takes such interest in hassling working-class/middle-class families so that their "numbers" will not show them as disproportionately dealing with certain ethnic groups.
Now, of course we do not know if they have complied with any of those laws , from this article. I still say this is an example of social workers on a power binge. I therefore will side with the family , until I know the rest, based upon what I know of the social workers previous behavior in this case.
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