Posted on 12/15/2001 8:11:09 AM PST by Lance Romance
Waltham home-school kids put in DSS custody
by Ed Hayward
Saturday, December 15, 2001
A long-standing feud between a Waltham couple intent on home schooling their children and the city has resulted in a judge's decision to put the two kids in the custody of the Department of Social Services.
While Framingham Juvenile Court Judge Kathryn White said DSS will serve as the guardians of the children until they are 16, there was no order to turn the Bryant children - Nyssa, 12, and George, 13 - over to DSS. The two remain at home.
``My opinion is this is all about who has custody of the children,'' Kim Bryant said yesterday. ``It has nothing to do with whether the children are educated or what the children learn.''
Kim and George Bryant have argued it is their right to home school the children without filing reports or testing results with the city school department because, in their opinion, there's no such requirement in the U.S. Constitution.
The parents, who have handled their own legal work, plan to appeal the latest ruling. A call to Waltham Mayor David Gately, who chairs the School Committee, was not returned.
The battle with Waltham schools has been going on for five years. Once before, a judge granted custody of the children to DSS and ordered the parents to file reports required by the state school attendance laws.
The Bryants complied but failed to file the lesson plans with the city in September. That set off a chain of complaints against the couple by the city.
DSS has found no need to intervene and Middlesex County prosecutors turned down the case.
But on Dec. 7 Judge White found in favor of the city's claim that the children were in need of ``care and protection'' even though she found no evidence the children had been abused or neglected.
DSS spokesman Michael MacCormack said the agency is watching the case and waiting to see if the Bryants comply with the city's request for an education plan.
``It's the school department and the court they have to satisfy,'' MacCormack said. ``We were brought in just to make sure that gets done.''
Kim Bryant said her husband filed the plan yesterday and the two are waiting for a response from the city's attorneys. In the meantime, the couple continue to educate the two children at home.
``We think it's the best education that they can get,'' said Kim Bryant. ``We want to strengthen the family bond.''
Kim Bryant said she fears violence in the public schools and also disagrees with the current testing craze.
``I'm not impressed with testing,'' she said. ``I don't think testing gives you a good picture of a child, really. I think it's very stressful on children to take tests. I don't find them necessary because I'm working with the children every day. I have a good handle on what they know.''
I've encountered the word systemic frequently in discussions of pathologies, as it is defined, "a systemic drug, disease or poison reaches and has an effect on the whole of a body or a plant and not just one part of it." Since this is about government education, I suppose it is a kind of pathology.
PhD is pronounce "fud" and means, "piled higher and deeper" as demonstrated by Dr. Parella. Hank
AND.... an excellent legal team, like Home School Defense Fund,
or American Center for Law & Justice (ACLJ);Jay Sekulow, et als.
Time for the people to kick the village's attitude...
Methinks
Regards,
What is wrong with testing, it gives you a standard to teach from.
I have no problem with home schooling, as long as the parents are not idiots. My ex wanted to homeschool my daughter until she was convinced that someone who cannot multiply properly, or does not know when the civil war took places should not be home-schooling their children.
I agree that the schools are pathetic today, and they want to teach a bunch of pc crap. However I do worry about the people who do not have the time or smarts to do it themselves. In the name of raising ones child properly, lets not allow idiots to raise more idiots.
So she's going to send your daughter back into the same system that produced her?
Part of the beauty of homeschooling is learning right along with your kids. Moreover, studies conducted by Dr. Brian Rey have shown that the differences in scores of homeschoolers w/ college-educated parents and homeschoolers w/ high school-educated parents was negligible.
How about some phone numbers and email addresses, time to freep these (the public servants that think they are our leaders) suckers.
Nukem
Hmmmmm... Well nobody else knows, then, do they. I was homeschooled from 3rd grade up, and my mother recognized the importance of dragging our a$$es in to be tested by the state every year, because unless you plan to work at 7-11 or within the protective walls of religious/homeschool kingdom, having an impersonal measure of your scholastic progress makes it a hell of alot easier to get on with higher education etc. in the "outside world"...
Parental rights outweigh any state or local laws. The home is the ultimate in local government - govt. at its most local.
Whose standard? The state's?? No thanks. The parents should set their own standards.
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