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Home-schooling standoff (MA Liberals try to get state custody for 'abused' home-schooled kids)
Metrowest Daily ^
| 6/13/03
| Beecher
Posted on 06/13/2003 12:26:29 PM PDT by pabianice
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To: 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!"Adolph Hitler said
.Let me control the textbooks and I will control the state. The state will take youth and give to youth its own education and its own upbringing. Your child belongs to us already
.what are you?
To: spokanite
OK, worst case scenario... DSS takes the kids from the family, then what? Force them to take a test? For starters, if they fail, they get placed with a foster family and registered in to public school, during their teen years.
102
posted on
06/13/2003 1:33:30 PM PDT
by
TaxRelief
(From the writings of Marx: Control the society by controlling the kids.)
To: 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." I've got a real problem with that comment ..
All this over a test????
103
posted on
06/13/2003 1:36:56 PM PDT
by
Mo1
(I'm a monthly Donor .. You can be one too!)
To: TXBubba
We have a family friend whose sister took her kids out of school to be homeschooled. He told us he was going to have to report his own sister because she wasn't doing a darn thing about educating her kids. She was just unhappy that she kept getting called for their misbehavior at school. It does happen. This isn't to put down the serious homeschoolers out there.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.
104
posted on
06/13/2003 1:40:19 PM PDT
by
TaxRelief
(From the writings of Marx: Control the society by controlling the kids.)
To: the gillman@blacklagoon.com
ref: your post #47, your a HOOT. thanks for the great visual....
To: pabianice
MASSACHUSETTS
Updated August 2002
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."
- A Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts case, Care and Protection of Charles, 399 Mass. 324, 333 34, 504 N.E.2d 592, 598-99 (1987), ruled that parents have a right to educate their children at home, but it must be reconciled with the state interest in the education of its citizenry. According to Care and Protection of Charles, the school committee must give parents an opportunity to explain their home school plan and present witnesses on their behalf. The school has the right to inquire in four areas (this information should be included in a home schooler's initial letter to the school district):
- The school committee may examine the competency of the parents to teach their children, but may not require certification, advanced degrees or college degrees.
- The school committee must have access to textbooks and lesson plans, but "only to determine the types of subjects to be taught and the grade level of the instruction for comparison purposes with the curriculum of the public schools." The school committee or superintendent may "not dictate the manner in which the subjects will be taught." 504 N.E.2d at p. 602.
- Also, information on the number of hours and days (180) of instruction may be requested.
- The school committee may require periodic standardized testing; the school authorities may decide where and with what test testing will be done, "in consultation with the parents." Other means of evaluating the progress of the children, such as progress reports or home visits, may be substituted for the formal testing process, but only "subject to the approval of the parents." 504 N.E.2d at pp. 601 02.
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.
- In the Matter of Johnna M. Searles, No. 9037CH0017, District Court of the Amesbury Division, Sept. 4, 1990, the Court considered the school district's "request that the [home schooled] child be ordered to enroll in the
public schools pending the approval of a home education program." Slip Op. at p. 2 3. The Court agreed with HSLDA and ruled the child did not have to be in public school while waiting for the school district to approve the home school and that "the interests of all parents are best served if they proceed expeditiously in a serious effort to resolve the matter by agreement." Slip Op. at p. 3 4. The Court also remarked if an order to put children in school was to be obtained, the school district would first have to prove children were not receiving regular and thorough instruction. p. 4.
- If a home school is rejected after seeking approval, the burden of proof shifts to the school authorities to show that the proposed home school instruction fails to equal "in thoroughness and efficiency, and in the progress made therein, that in the public schools in the same town." Charles, at p. 601. Home education is a "right protected by the Fourteenth Amendment." (p. 598). The object of the statute is "that all children shall be educated, not that they shall be educated in any particular way." (p. 600).
- Nearly each one of the 481 school districts has different rules for home schools, demonstrating the vagueness of the law.
- "School committees shall approve a private school when satisfied that the instruction in all the studies required by law equals in thoroughness and efficiency, and in the progress made therein, that in the public schools in the same town, but shall not withhold such approval on account of religious teaching
." Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 76, § 1
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.
106
posted on
06/13/2003 1:41:39 PM PDT
by
jgrubbs
To: Notwithstanding
These folks sure do look like nutballs. Actually no they don't ..
I'm wondering just how DSS thinks they can force these kids to take the test?
107
posted on
06/13/2003 1:42:14 PM PDT
by
Mo1
(I'm a monthly Donor .. You can be one too!)
To: SamAdams76
The family in question here appears to be a decent family. But what if the situation was different. What if it was a unwed mother on welfare who purported to "teach her kids at home" but instead sat on her ass watching soap operas and game shows all day while she let her kids run wild? Would Freepers have a problem with that or would they say that the welfare mom has a right to not educate her kids, ensuring that they amount to nothing in society (like her).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.
To: spokanite
OK, worst case scenario... DSS takes the kids from the family, then what? 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
109
posted on
06/13/2003 1:45:03 PM PDT
by
ladysusan
(Social wreckers, not social workers)
To: AAABEST; nmh
Suggestion: Sarcasm is difficult to convey in writing. Putting /sarcasm> at the end is helpful.
110
posted on
06/13/2003 1:45:49 PM PDT
by
TaxRelief
(From the writings of Marx: Control the society by controlling the kids.)
To: CyberCowboy777
I'd love to know the source and context of that quote.
Thanks.
To: No More Gore Anymore
Social workers, who are usually below average IQ, should not get to make up their own rules re: acceptable testing metods for young people. This is a case of social workers out of control and on a power binge. If that doesn't worry you, nothing should. If you can provide documentation of this, I would be eternally grateful. Please freepmail me.
112
posted on
06/13/2003 1:46:46 PM PDT
by
ladysusan
(Social wreckers, not social workers)
To: CyberCowboy777
113
posted on
06/13/2003 1:47:55 PM PDT
by
MeekOneGOP
(Bu-bye Dixie Chimps! / Check out my Freeper site !: http://home.attbi.com/~freeper/wsb/index.html)
To: pabianice
Yep, DSS nabs these kids, and yet how many other kids are being sent back to their crack-addicted mothers who beat them up on a regular basis?
114
posted on
06/13/2003 1:52:18 PM PDT
by
Slyfox
To: pabianice
Actually, it may be better to speak with the Waltham area Director of DSS, Keneth Pontes. His # is (781) 641-8501. Leave a message, if nothing else. The Central Office denied any knowledge of the case when I called.One day they may come for your kids. God help us.
To: TXBubba
Fair enough; but let us consider that the brother's perception of things may have been tainted by the common angst that children out of PS are in danger of learning nothing. Those same children can go the PS and learn nothing...or worse.
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.
116
posted on
06/13/2003 1:56:54 PM PDT
by
dasboot
(Everything that should be up, is up.)
To: dasboot
Standardized testing Is it standardized testing of the parents choosing, like the Stanford or Iowa, or is the only 'allowed' one like the inadequate state test?
117
posted on
06/13/2003 1:57:00 PM PDT
by
Slyfox
To: SamAdams76
So where do you draw the line to the parent's rights? The taxpayers rights? Children are the responsbility of the parent, not the state. Are some homeschoolers going to fall through the cracks? YES.
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.
118
posted on
06/13/2003 1:57:16 PM PDT
by
Diva Betsy Ross
((were it not for the brave, there would be no land of the free -))
To: pabianice
bump
119
posted on
06/13/2003 1:58:38 PM PDT
by
Aric2000
(If the history of science shows us anything, it is that we get nowhere by labeling our ignorance god)
To: ladysusan
Why have we as a country allowed a state or DSS to have so much power? Children should never be taken away from a healthy family just becasue the family refuses to follow a program that a "system" sets up. It's the same with the way a family choses to live in a particulr environment. If one wants to live without electricity or inside plumbing, they should be allowed to. That alone shouldn't affect the well being of the child and how it's raised.
I hope this family hires an excellent attorney and fights the system.
This situation is wrong, wrong, wrong!!!
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