Sociology > Depression > AWESOME! a courageous woman leaves Utah with her kids to escape thepublic school system and judge's order to force kids into public school.BRAVE LADY!
| Topic: |
Sociology > Depression |
| User: |
"aj suburban dude" |
| Date: |
20 Dec 2007 05:00:55 PM |
| Object: |
AWESOME! a courageous woman leaves Utah with her kids to escape thepublic school system and judge's order to force kids into public school.BRAVE LADY! |
I WISH HER THE BEST!
glad she decided to to allow her kids to be forced into the public
school system.
good for her. I hope she and her kids do well.
that damn judge and the state better leave them ALONE.
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=59277
Woman abandons home to escape public schools
Judge ordered homeschooler to enroll kids or lose custody
By Bob Unruh
A Utah woman who was ordered by a juvenile court judge to enroll her
children in public school or lose custody of them has abandoned her
home, furniture and other possessions to escape the order.
Denise Mafi, a nine-year veteran of homeschooling, has confirmed to
WND she and her children packed up their essentials - clothes and
homeschool materials - and fled Utah over the weekend, spending more
than 50 hours on a bus trip to an undisclosed part of the country.
There she has obtained an empty home and is spending the Christmas
break trying to find beds for her children and herself. After the New
Year she will involve the children in a local homeschooling process.
"We're shampooing carpets right now. We have no furniture. We have no
beds," she said. "But my kids are not going to public school. They are
not going where Jesus isn't welcome."
Her home, furniture and other possessions left behind in Utah? "I'm
not going back unless the judge removes the threat of arrest," she
said. "I'll fight for the cause but I'm not going to be a martyr."
The case erupted for Mafi because of an apparent paperwork glitch that
could be the fault of her local school district. Now Utah home school
officials say they have asked the state Legislature to review actions
by the judge, whose office has declined comment to WND.
The confrontation developed after Mafi, still married but separated
from her husband, already had begun her homeschooling plan for the
2007-2008 year, for which she had received a district exemption as
required in Utah. She was told she was being accused of four counts of
failing to abide by the state's compulsory education law, with a
penalty of up to six months in jail on each count, because the
district alleged she had not submitted a required affidavit for the
long-completed 2006-2007 school year.
Counseled by a public defender, she thought she was meeting the
court's demands earlier when she enrolled her two youngest children in
classes in Utah and put her two older children in an online curriculum
connected to the public school. However, she soon learned otherwise.
"Well everything fell apart in court today. I had to enroll my two
oldest in public school. ... If I didn't the judge said I would lose
custody of my children. He threw out the plea and we go to trial on
January 9th. I have NO CHANCE with this judge. He will find me guilty.
He already has. So I will probably be spending some time in jail.
Please pray for my children," she noted in an online forum connected
to a "Five In A Row" homeschool curriculum she had used when her
children were younger.
Scott Johansen
At issue are the threats issued by Judge Scott Johansen, who serves in
the juvenile division of the state's 7th Judicial District. Johansen
threw out the agreement Mafi thought would resolve the charges.
Mafi has reported, and her recollection of events has been confirmed
by attorneys, that Johansen told her homeschooling fails 100 percent
of the time and he would not allow it.
"I can tell you there are several legislators working on this,
including one on the judicial retention committee," said John
Yarrington, president of the Utah Home Education Association. "There's
no excuse for this kind of bias and prejudice."
Mafi, who has her own copy of the required affidavit, said she faxed
it to the school district office Oct. 27, 2006. But the district
alleged it didn't arrive, and Mafi failed to keep a fax confirmation
she received at the time.
WND contacted the judge's court, but was told to call the state
judiciary's office. A spokeswoman confirmed the situation was being
reviewed, but she couldn't comment on a pending case. The district
attorney's office didn't return a telephone request for comment.
Tom Smith, however, who identified himself as a friend of the judge,
wrote to WND in his defense.
"I and another local Republican official wrote to encourage Gov.
Bangerter to appoint Scott Johansen, who was a Democrat county
attorney at the time, as a juvenile judge. Scott did not like the
partisan politics at the time, and many of his views today tend to be
more conservative," he said. "I believe he has served our area very
well in his capacity of juvenile judge."
Smith cited an occasion when he was teaching a number of years ago,
when "some in our school wanted to change the method of teaching to a
more liberal way; a method that had not done well in other schools.
Judge Johansen took a stand against it with those of us who opposed
the change. The result was that several of us teachers were not
required to make the change."
Yarrington said a lawyer for the UHEA is working on the case, and
lawyers for the Home School Legal Defense Association are reviewing
the situation.
Mafi said she is hoping she will not be required to return to Utah for
the scheduled Jan. 9 trial, and it was unclear immediately how the
fact her children no longer remained in Utah would affect the charges
already filed.
She has explained that her opposition to public schools comes from
what she sees as an anti-Christian atmosphere. Mafi said she and her
husband had decided homeschooling would be their choice even before
the children reached school age.
As WND has reported, such threats and actions are becoming more common
in Germany, but that nation still makes homeschooling illegal under a
law launched when Hitler expressed a desire to control the minds of
youth.
A recent court ruling there, in fact, said not only is homeschooling a
basis for child endangerment charges, but a local government was
remiss in allowing a mother to take her two children to another
country where homeschooling is legal.
Wolfgang Drautz, consul general for the Federal Republic of Germany,
has commented on the issue on a blog, noting the government "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."
Drautz said homeschool students' test results may be as good as for
those in school, but "school teaches not only knowledge but also
social conduct, encourages dialogue among people of different beliefs
and cultures, and helps students to become responsible citizens."
The German government's defense of its "social" teachings and
mandatory public school attendance was clarified during an earlier
dispute on which WND reported, when a German family wrote to officials
objecting to police officers picking their child up at home and
delivering him to a public school.
"The minister of education does not share your attitudes toward so-
called homeschooling," said a government letter in response. "... You
complain about the forced school escort of primary school children by
the responsible local police officers. ... In order to avoid this in
future, the education authority is in conversation with the affected
family in order to look for possibilities to bring the religious
convictions of the family into line with the unalterable school
attendance requirement."
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| User: "aj suburban dude" |
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| Title: Re: AWESOME! a courageous woman leaves Utah with her kids to escapethe public school system and judge's order to force kids into public school.BRAVE LADY! |
20 Dec 2007 05:03:20 PM |
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glad she decided *NOT* to to allow her kids to be forced into the
public
school system.
correction, I mean NOT allow.
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| User: "" |
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| Title: Re: AWESOME! a courageous woman leaves Utah with her kids to escapethe public school system and judge's order to force kids into public school.BRAVE LADY! |
20 Dec 2007 05:18:23 PM |
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On Dec 20, 6:03 pm, aj suburban dude <suburbanl...@mail.com> wrote:
glad she decided *NOT* to to allow her kids to be forced into the
public
school system.
correction, I mean NOT allow.
My sister homeschooled her two kids. They are in 'highschool' now,
and doing well. There are communities of homeschool families that she
brings them too, it seems to have worked out well, even though most of
the family said,"Oh, ya GOTTA put them in school."
Uncle Frett helped with astronomy.
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| User: "Contrarian" |
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| Title: Re: AWESOME! a courageous woman leaves Utah with her kids to escape the public school system and judge's order to force kids into public school. BRAVE LADY! |
21 Dec 2007 01:13:07 AM |
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wrote:
On Dec 20, 6:03 pm, aj suburban dude <suburbanl...@mail.com> wrote:
glad she decided *NOT* to to allow her kids to be forced into the
public school system.
But she should not have had to flee! I was wondering whether
to post this one yesterday, and say that the "system" is
broken.
My sister homeschooled her two kids. They are in 'highschool' now,
and doing well.
Uncle Frett helped with astronomy.
:-)
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| User: "Michelle la Belle" |
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| Title: Re: AWESOME! a courageous woman leaves Utah with her kids to escapethe public school system and judge's order to force kids into public school.BRAVE LADY! |
21 Dec 2007 07:46:33 AM |
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On Dec 21, 2:13=A0am, Contrarian <adrb...@gmail.com> wrote:
Jogwh...@gmail.com wrote:
On Dec 20, 6:03 pm, aj suburban dude <suburbanl...@mail.com> wrote:
=A0>glad she decided *NOT* to to allow her kids to be forced into the
public =A0 school system.
But she should not have had to flee! I was wondering whether
to post this one yesterday, and say that the "system" is
broken.
My sister homeschooled her two kids. =A0They are in 'highschool' now,
and doing well.
Uncle Frett helped with astronomy.
=A0:-)
They are jailing parents in England for kids school absenteeism too.
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| User: "Michelle la Belle" |
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| Title: Re: AWESOME! a courageous woman leaves Utah with her kids to escapethe public school system and judge's order to force kids into public school.BRAVE LADY! |
20 Dec 2007 06:24:29 PM |
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On Dec 20, 6:18 pm, wrote:
On Dec 20, 6:03 pm, aj suburban dude <suburbanl...@mail.com> wrote:
glad she decided *NOT* to to allow her kids to be forced into the
public
school system.
correction, I mean NOT allow.
My sister homeschooled her two kids. They are in 'highschool' now,
and doing well. There are communities of homeschool families that she
brings them too, it seems to have worked out well, even though most of
the family said,"Oh, ya GOTTA put them in school."
Uncle Frett helped with astronomy.
I'm familiar with this stuff. I homeschooled my kid for a total of
about 3 years.
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| User: "%" |
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| Title: Re: AWESOME! a courageous woman leaves Utah with her kids to escape the public school system and judge's order to force kids into public school. BRAVE LADY! |
20 Dec 2007 05:15:40 PM |
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aj suburban dude wrote:
glad she decided *NOT* to to allow her kids to be forced into the
public
school system.
correction, I mean NOT allow.
hi
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