NH court orders home-schooled child into government-run school
ADF-allied attorney files motion to reconsider and hold off decision in case involving 10-year-old girl
Wednesday, August 26, 2009, 1:45 PM (MST) |
ADF Media Relations | 480-444-0020

Comments



LACONIA, N.H. — An Alliance Defense Fund allied attorney filed motions with a New Hampshire court Monday asking it to reconsider and stay its decision to order a 10-year-old home-schooled girl into a government-run school in Meredith.

Although the marital master making recommendations to the court agreed the child is “well liked, social and interactive with her peers, academically promising, and intellectually at or superior to grade level” and that “it is clear that the home schooling...has more than kept up with the academic requirements of the...public school system,” he nonetheless proposed that the Christian girl be ordered into a government-run school after considering “the impact of [her religious] beliefs on her interaction with others.” The court approved the order.

“Parents have a fundamental right to make educational choices for their children. In this case specifically, the court is illegitimately altering a method of education that the court itself admits is working,” said ADF-allied attorney John Anthony Simmons of Hampton. “The court is essentially saying that the evidence shows that, socially and academically, this girl is doing great, but her religious beliefs are a bit too sincerely held and must be sifted, tested by, and mixed among other worldviews. This is a step too far for any court to take.”

The parents of the child divorced in 1999. The mother has home-schooled their daughter since first grade with curriculum that meets all state review standards. In addition to home schooling, the girl attends supplemental public school classes and has also been involved in a variety of extra-curricular sports activities.

In the process of renegotiating the terms of a parenting plan for the girl, the guardian ad litem involved in the case concluded, according to the court order, that the girl “appeared to reflect her mother’s rigidity on questions of faith” and that the girl’s interests “would be best served by exposure to a public school setting” and “different points of view at a time when she must begin to critically evaluate multiple systems of belief...in order to select, as a young adult, which of those systems will best suit her own needs.”

Marital Master Michael Garner reasoned that the girl’s “vigorous defense of her religious beliefs to [her] counselor suggests strongly that she has not had the opportunity to seriously consider any other point of view” and then recommended that the girl be ordered to enroll in a government school instead of being home-schooled. Judge Lucinda V. Sadler approved the recommendation and issued the order on July 14.

“The New Hampshire Supreme Court itself has specifically declared, ‘Home education is an enduring American tradition and right...,’” said ADF Senior Legal Counsel Mike Johnson. “There is clearly and without question no legitimate legal basis for the court’s decision, and we trust it will reconsider its conclusions.”

my guess is that dad's got an axe to grind and is forcing the action here... I'm not real sure why NH would give a shit otherwise.

right or wrong, kids don't generally get a chance to consider any other point of view re: religion until they're a bit older than 10 years old. no amount of legislating is going to change this.

what a fine waste of taxpayer money.

Wonder how many field trips to the mall were taken?

I have no idea what this means.

I have some experience (albeit a small sample) with former homeschoolers, and they tend to be very honest about their activities. One kid told me they would go shopping almost every day.

Where did that article come from? It is not a news article.

Who cares?



I made it up.

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&sour...le&resnum=4




This whole thing is really really bad. Why is the government saying that the girl is mentally corrupt because of her religious beliefs? Have they not read the constitution?

I didn't say you made it up, it's just that the article you posted is weird. "Government-run school" has innapropriate negative connotations. They're called public schools, not 'government schools.'

The article says that the child was doing well academically, so I don't think this antecdote is relevant.

How sad then, that public schools can't provide an equally good education as kids who are basically being schooled part time.

"Marital Master"

Pretty sweet job title imo

Only in New Hampshire. LIVE FREE OR DIE!

This country is MOSTLY populated by people whose minds are made up about religion by the age of 10. That's kinda the nature of religion. I cannot imagine this ruling will survive an appeal.

If you want separation of church and state, you cannot have it both ways.

I'm surprised that religious private schools don't have some interest in this case. Seems to me that the same criteria would apply wouldn't it? I'd say that their reasoning is pretty far from constitutional if you look at it from that perspective.

I wonder if people would think differently if the child was being indoctrinated into the First Church of Shatnerology or some cult that is considered really out there by the main stream as opposed to Christian.

Our parents both help us and screw us up in many ways and the State shouldn't be involved in something like this whether it's a Christian Faith he's brain washed with or a belief that William Shatner is God.

bad example. shatner is god. fact.

This is a bad example because no one here knows what this girl believes, or if she is part of The Family, or whatever that Christian group is called that has sex with minors, and we are still saying this, which is exactly the point you are making.

Summary:

No one knows what she believes.
I still think that everyone on the government side of this issue forgot that we have a constitution.

Actually I think Bob has a good point as are people really agreeing that no matter what the parent's beliefs, they have the right to home school their kid?

Let's say the parents are any religion/cult that is non-violent and not breaking the law such as wiccans or Zeus believers, would that be ok?

Is there really a requirement to teach socially acceptable beliefs? What about Amish schools - are they too extreme? How well would an Amish child do in a "standard" school or social situation?

It is a pretty slippery slope. Are racists going to be denied the ability to home school? What about those who think that the two party system is unconstitutional? Or that sex before marriage is wrong? Who is going to decide what is too controversial or extreme for someone else's child to believe? Are we going to forbid creationism or intelligent design in Home Schools just because a Judge finds it too extreme? How can we (the government) deny a parent's right to teach their religious views to their child or to "protect" them from other views that they find harmful to the way they wish their child to develop? This is a basic right on which this country was founded – the right to be free of religious persecution.

How can we possibly object to how well a parent is indoctrinating their own child into their belief system? Especially when the child is apparently learning the curriculum that is required by law. This is often EXACTLY why the parents choose to home school in the first place. They don't believe that it is the school that should be responsible for teaching a value system to their children.

I must be missing something, because nobody here knows what her beliefs are! Of course it doesn't matter! That's the whole point of me saying that I don't know what the actual girl believes... so we don't even need to bring up hypotheticals like a crazy Wiccan girl. We can just talk about the actual girl, in this actual situation. I don't know her beliefs. I think it's 100% unacceptable to force her to attend public school when she has shown through testing to be excelling at her grade level.

I have a feeling I'm still not understanding you/Bob.

Whoops. I was wrong.

Is that an informed opinion or a knee-jerk reaction?


Yeah, actually the kid was brought back into the "government-run" school because the parent realized the kid was not getting what she needed.

What you posted says that she is a Christian so we know that her beliefs are basically considered that of a main stream religion by most and not a cult.

who's NOT on your side here?

you're acting like someone's disagreeing with you. I don't see that.

Many groups consider themselves 'Christians'. They certainly wouldn't want to come after a general Christian. I think it's almost certain to be a strange sect. I also think the reason that the article isn't specify is because IT DOESN'T MATTER. The ruling is crazy no matter what.




I actually changed the 1st word of the 2nd sentence from We to I at the last minute, because I didn't want to speak for anyone. The issue was that gobears and Bob seemed to be saying that everyone would somehow feel differently if the person wasn't a 'Christian'... which is insane.

Yeah I'm not disagreeing either, parents should have the choice.

i dunno. they often lock up crazy delusional people in the mental health wards of hospitals. i think the judge is going light on her here.

This. I find this court ruling very disturbing, what religion this girl is or isn't exposed to is not the business of the court or the government. I might think her beliefs are goofy as ****, and I might find it distasteful her parents are indoctrinating her with them, but as long as she can read and write at the proper grade level, it just doesn't ****ing matter. I would also bet this girl is more likely to be a good citizen than the average public school student.

From my perspective Christianity is a way out there cult with crazy beliefs, perhaps even more crazy than Shatnerology (because as people have pointed out Shattner is great.) But still I support the parents rights to teach their kids crazy beliefs like christianity and islam.

It's unfortunate that they want to do this, but its important that they are allowed to do this.