NH court orders home-schooled child into government-run school
Filed under Law & Politics, News on August 26th, 2009 by Marcus FrenchPress Release from the Alliance Defense Fund:
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.”
Simmons filed his motions and supporting brief in the case In the Matter of Kurowski and Kurowski (Voydatch) with the Family Division of the Judicial Court for Belknap County in Laconia.
ADF is a legal alliance of Christian attorneys and like-minded organizations defending the right of people to freely live out their faith. Launched in 1994, ADF employs a unique combination of strategy, training, funding, and litigation to protect and preserve religious liberty, the sanctity of life, marriage, and the family.
Note: Facts in ADF news releases are verified prior to publication but may change over time. Members of the media are encouraged to contact ADF for the latest information on this matter.
Thank God for the ADF. Who else would be able to fight cases like this which infringe on our religious and parental freedoms?
Tags: alliance defense fund, christianity, christians, curriculum, home schooling, liberty, new hampshire, press release, religious beliefs, religious freedom
Possibly Related Posts:
What happened to freedom of religion? Doesn’t tht exist in America anymore?! It is not possible to have too much faith… that is ridiculous! I’d also like to know if a similar ruling would have been made if the girl’s faith was in Atheism, Secular Humanism, or Islam…..? (NOT) If the father think his daughters views are going to be balanced by sending her to public school, he may be in for a surprise. Faith flourishes under opposition and persecution, see the book of Acts for more info :o)
Another sign of the Nazism of our current judicial system/country. If things continue like this we will be in detention camps for voicing our opposition to the government. This is a very sad statement on the United States of America which USED to be the land of the free…
Melissa,
I’m not sure you should just throw words like ‘Nazism’ around - it might not be a very helpful thing to do. It’s just my opinion though.
Cheers,
Marc
I would like to know if there is a cultural collusion between Michael Garner and Judge Lucinda V. Sadler. I am interjecting & wondering if Garner & Sadler are Ashkenazis. I don’t know whether most know this, but Ashkenazis don’t like Christians and that is very evident in the Talmud. Perhaps this is an example of Christophobia expressed by a culture of people that loath the Christian faith and will do anything to subvert it. Ashkenazis believe their culture is superior and they are the chosen and beautiful. Whether they are Orthodox, reformed or secular one idea is always drilled in this cultures head, you are the chosen and above all men. We do what we desire.
Wow Marc,
You have one commenter throwing the Nazi word around, completely cheapening the tragic meaning, and another slamming the entire Ashkenazi Jewish population, which is the vast majority of Jews in the US.
I don’t know how much you like to moderate comments, but if you leave things like this lying around, any curious Jew will find this place to be a hostile environment, definitely not the image Dr. Brown would prefer. If this was the first page I saw here back in my religious days, it would have been my last.
–Dan