RHODE ISLAND
District Lends New Meaning to "School Bully"
A Rhode Island family received a very threatening letter from their school district in early October. The school refused to approve their home school program, claiming that it was inappropriate because the science and social studies programs were written from a religious perspective. The school also objected to the fact that the family wanted to teach seventh-grade biology while the public schools were teaching physical sciences in that grade. The family refused to knuckle under.
Two months later, the school wrote another letter, demanding that the family come in for a meeting. The family called Home School Legal Defense Association. Attorney Scott Somerville called the school to explain that under no circumstances would the family consent to the illegal demands which the school had made. Only then did the school admit that they had called their attorneys months earlier, and the attorneys had advised them that they had no right to issue such a letter. Even though their own attorneys had told them the earlier letter was wrong, the school refused to send a letter to the family admitting the error. The school's reason? They didn't want other home-schooling families (who had all "cooperated so nicely") to know that their bullying tactics were illegal.
