New Trial Ordered for German Homeschoolers Sentenced to Prison

Rosemary and Juergen Dudek's jail sentence was overturned on Christmas Eve. However, the family's troubles are not over.

In July of 2008, they were each sentenced to 90 days in prison for homeschooling when a lower court’s sentence of fines totaling 900 euros (about $1,200) for not sending their children to school was appealed.

However, on December 24, a state appeals court overturned the sentence on the grounds that legal errors had been made by the regional court.

“We are relieved and grateful that the appeals court has set aside these harsh sentences,” Mr. Dudek said. “However, we know that this is not the end of the story since new trials have been ordered.”

I wonder if American homeschool families would be as determined to stand up to the government if threatened with prison. I know that when we were first homeschooling, before homeschooling was legal in all 50 states, my husband was pretty adamant that if there were ever any legal issues that he was not willing to go to jail over them. Mr. Dudek said the trial had taught him to overcome the fear of standing up to the German government.

“The latest measures being taken by the government against homeschoolers is
designed to make us afraid and to give up,” he said. “The changes in laws to
make it easier to take away children, and the more aggressive posture of the
Jugendamt in trying to threaten parental custody demonstrate that the
government is trying to intimidate and scare homeschoolers. We must not be
afraid. Fear saps our courage, our strength and our perspective. To win this
fight we must stand firm and trust to the Lord to deliver us.” (HSLDA)

The Germans do not appear to be any closer to relaxing their stance against what they consider to be the formation of "parallel societies" such as could be created when parents teach their children at home away from the watchful eye of Big Brother.

HSLDA continues to work with other organizations to try to help beleaguered
German parents who simply wish to educate their children at home—just as
hundreds of thousands of others do in other parts of the world. To learn more
about HSLDA’s activities and to listen to a Moody prime time radio broadcast
with remarks by Mr. Dudek, please HSLDA’s Germany
page

Criminal Charges Dropped against German Homeschoolers

HSLDA brings us an update on a criminal case against a German home schooling family. Please continue to keep them in your prayers.

The Brause family of Zittau, Germany, appeared in court recently to defend against criminal charges aimed at punishing them because they homeschool. The family had lost partial custody of their children about a year ago after the German Youth Welfare Office, also known as the Jugendamt, had filed a petition of neglect in family court because the children were homeschooled. According to a report by the International Human Rights Group (IHRG), the criminal charges have now been dropped. German Attorney Johannes Hildebrandt represented the family in the criminal matter and told HSLDA that the family court matter remains. HSLDA requests that you continue to keep this family in your prayers as they seek to regain full custody of their children.

German Homeschoolers seek asylum in the US

Excuse me? Asylum for homeschooling?

While I am sure there are plenty of people who think that homeschoolers belong in an asylum, that isn't the kind I am talking about.

I thought "asylum" was when a person persecuted for political opinions or religious beliefs in his or her own country is given refuge in another country.

Think Tiananmen Square. Russian defectors. Refugees fleeing the Hitler regime.

Of course, now I understand. Fleeing the Hitler regime, or at least, fleeing a law against homeschooling that dates back to the Third Reich.

Uwe and Hannelore Romeike and their family have left their home in Bissingen, Germany, to escape persecution under a requiring all children to attend public school. Check the sidebar for a list of other posts in this blog about the plight of German homeschoolers. The law prohibits homeschooling because the German government frowns upon "the emergence of parallel societies based on separate philosophical convictions" that (*horrors*) might be taught by parents at home.

Imagine that. Having to flee the country because you don't agree with the government about how you want your children to be educated. Let it sink in for a minute.

"The freedom we have to homeschool our children is wonderful. ... We don't have to worry about looking over our shoulder anymore, wondering when the youth welfare officials will come or how much money we have to pay in fines."

What is sad is that these homeschoolers may have jumped out of the frying pan into the fire. Click on the "digg story" link below and check out the opinions people have about the future of homeschooling under Obama.

Then check out this story about the bill that was introduced in NJ that has the noble sounding goal of providing a "Chilcren's Bill of Rights" but that actually will result in an erosion of your parental rights.
read more | digg story

"You are hereby sentenced to 90 days in prison"

HSLDA brings an update this week on the plight of two home schooling families in Germany.

I wrote earlier this summer about the "final solution" that Germany has begun to implement in the homeschool community there.

Exterminate them.

OK, maybe that is an extreme characterization, but only a little. Germany does not tolerate homeschooling for any reason, citing laws dating to the Hitler era.

A recent member of a German homeschool network wrote to the country’s top education official, Dr. Annette Schavan, asking that the topic of homeschooling be put on the agenda for a national conference of state education leaders. He was told “The topic would not be discussed because it is impossible to homeschool in Germany.”

Even foreigners who are there temporarily, such as US military families stationed in Germany, are not supposed to homeschool.

So in practical terms, that is the same as extermination. This is unconscionable.

In a nutshell, this week we have good news and bad news. The good news was that the Jugendamt decided to release the Gorber children to the custody of their parents pending a family court hearing on September 25. They are in a public school, but were not required to attend "special schools" a long distance from their homes, or live in the state-run group homes conveniently located near the "special schools"

Meanwhile, Rosemary and Juergen Dudek have already been sentenced to 90 days in prison for homeschooling, and have had a new round of criminal charges filed against them. They continue to fight these charges, and have applied to be considered a private school.

Can you say, "Ja wohl, Herr Kommandant?" I used to laugh when Sgt. Schultz said that to Col. Klink on Hogan's Heroes when I was a kid. But I am not laughing now.

Could that happen here? It is by the grace of God that the eleven Christians arrested in Philadelphia for the "hate crime" of sharing the Gospel at a homosexual event a few years ago did not actually have to go to prison for the incredible 47 years they were faced with serving. Even though video of the events clearly showed that the Christians were not violent, Philadelphia police and officials insisted on interpreting their every move as hostile. Four of the defendants were charged with ethnic intimidation and rioting -- among other things.

Right. So what does that have to do with homeschooling?

It shows that things we really don't believe could ever happen here are already happening. If people can't be sure they have First Amendment rights on a public street, how can parents be sure they have the right to teach their children at home, privately and away from Big Brother's watchful eye? As I said in an earlier post, these things are the germ of the same idea that is resulting in the prosecution of these German parents.

Would YOU be willing to serve 90 days in prison for homeschooling?

My earlier posts on the German homeschooling problem can be found here:

Ill Wind Blows for Homeschooling
Germany Strikes Again
Germany Declares War on Homeschooling

Germany declares WAR on homeschooling

Check out the short video and read the article by clicking on the title link or clicking here.

As stated in earlier posts, the German government's argument against home schooling as stated by Wolfgang Drautz, German Consul General is that "The public has a legitimate interest in countering the rise of parallel societies that are based on religion or motivated by different world views and in integrating minorities into the population as a whole."

"Germany does not want the kind of citizens that home schooling produces. They've seen how the home-schooling movement in the U.S. developed and they're very keen on that not happening here," said German academic Klaus Guenther, who is also an American citizen and was home schooled.

I'll bet they don't. As I mentioned the other day, staggering numbers of home schoolers are more likely to vote and be politically active than the general population. Moreover, only 4% of former homeschoolers believe politics and government are too difficult to understand. That would be a dangerous number of informed citizens for a government that is using as its justification a law that was first put into effect during the Third Reich!

Where is the EU in all of this? I thought they were going to be getting involved.

Germany strikes again

Can you imagine having your home raided and five of your children seized as "endangered" because you are home schooling?

Click on the title link (or here) to read a truly horrifying article about the ordeal being experienced by the Gorber family. In January of this year, representatives of the Jugendamt (child welfare agency) and police took five of the family's children while the father was visiting the mother in the hospital after complications with the birth of their ninth child. They are now in foster care pending the results of a court ordered psychological exam of the parents.

More homeschooling families have left Germany to escape this kind of persecution, and it now appears that family court judges and the Jugendamt are ready and willing to take children away from their parents simply because they are being homeschooled.

Ill wind blows for homeschooling

This has been a tough couple of years for homeschooling.

Even as homeschooling is enjoying more widespread public acceptance than ever before, and more evidence that it is not only viable, but a superior method of education, there is also evidence that teachers' unions, state boards of education, and governments want to eliminate it - and if they cannot do that, severely restrict it.

Witness the ruling in California that effectively banned homeschooling unless the parents held a teaching license qualifying them to teach in public schools.

Witness homeschoolers specifically excluded from a contest sponsored by Subway Restaurants that any student of an institutional school could enter and win.

Witness the gross persecution (and prosecution!) of parents in Germany.

Witness the first time in 15 years that a jurisdiction has enacted laws that increased homeschooling regulations.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

Now, some of these situations have actually been resolved, like Subway apologizing to home schoolers, and a number of positive developments in the California case.

Presidential candiate Ron Paul actually had homeschooling as an active part of his platform.

But the last congressional elections swept in swarms of Democrats and confirmed Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House. An Obama presidency is not out of the realm of possibility.

It is interesting that the rabid supporters of other kinds of deadly "choices" do not support educational choice.

Now, I am not interested in debating the relative merits of the candidates, because at the moment I am a "None of the Above" supporter. Neither do I think someone should vote for a candidate based solely on his position on homeschooling. I realize there are entire groups of home school families who support each candidate for various reasons.

But a candidate's stance on educational choice speaks volumes about what he or she really thinks about parental rights, and whether he trusts parents to raise their own children. Whether he thinks the state should have carte blanche for 12 years to disabuse your child of any archaic notions he may have gotten from his stupid parents about God, right and wrong, American sovereignty, or anything else that might keep her from becoming a good global citizen.

It doesn't look the same as the current prosecution of home schoolers in Germany, but it is the germ of the same idea. Eventually it WILL look the same if we are not vigilant.

Have you really thought through what each candidate's policies as president will mean for your right to home school?