VIRGINIA
Federal Civil Rights Lawsuit Filed Against Social Workers
When social workers try to investigate allegations of abuse or neglect in Virginia, they usually go first to the local public school. Virginia law gives social workers the right to interview a child "in the absence of and without the consent of the parents." When frivolous allegations are filed against home schoolers, however, Virginia social workers go a little crazy. There is no way for them to get at home schooled children unless the parents agree. More and more home school parents are refusing to cooperate with the often lawless acts of social workers.
Social workers who tried to investigate one home in southern Virginia resorted to clearly illegal tactics. When they could not get into the home to investigate allegations of abuse, they called their friends at the juvenile court. The court intake workers filled out a blank subpoena form, ordering the parents to appear at the court with their children. But the court officials never bothered with the little details—like the legal basis for this court order. In fact, although the paper looked like a subpoena, it was legally meaningless.
Despite the total invalidity of this "court order," the court had it served by a uniformed deputy sheriff, complete with gun and badge. This officer informed the parents that if they did not appear at the court with their children, he would "issue a capias" for their arrest.
When HSLDA President Michael Farris heard about this flagrant violation of law, he immediately ordered a federal civil rights lawsuit filed against the social workers, the sheriff's office, and the juvenile court. This lawsuit is currently pending in the federal district court.
God in the Public Schools: A Tale of Two Christians
Dozens of times each fall, Virginia public school officials must listen as families explain why they cannot send their children to the public schools. In Virginia, if you believe it would be a sin for you to send your child to the public school, the school board must grant you a religious exemption from the compulsory attendance laws. Virginia Code sec 22.1-257(B)(2). But it can be very uncomfortable to look a school official in the face and tell him just how godless and depraved his school has become. In many ways, it's Virginia's own version of the Spanish Inquisition.
Even so, a Virginia religious exemption hearing also provides Christian home schoolers and Christian school-board members a chance to meet and understand one another better. Two families went before one large county's school board recently, explaining how they had become convinced that they must keep their children out of the public schools. The first family told how their oldest son had gone to kindergarten and then to first grade, and how his values and behavior had changed—steadily for the worse. They shared how confused their son was and how he misbehaved as a result. When the school tried to provide guidance for him, all they could do was have him talk to a teddy bear. "Why couldn't they just have him talk to Jesus?" the mother asked, almost in tears. "Why did he have to talk to a teddy bear?"
At the end of the hearing, HSLDA Attorney Scott Somerville said, "The Supreme Court has ordered Jesus Christ out of the schools. As long as He is banished, this family must follow Him."
As the meeting closed, the superintendent of schools turned and laid her hand on Attorney Somerville's arm. She said, "I've been biting my tongue all through this hearing. Let me just say that when I walk into this school district, Jesus walks in with me." She said that she knew that the courts had barred religion from the schools, "but we are doing what we can to change that."
The school committee ended their private session behind closed doors, and began their main public meeting. They opened in prayer, before an audience of 40 or 50 observers. The first item of business was to vote on the religious exemption claims. The religious exemptions were moved and seconded, and passed unanimously.
Christians have not utterly abandoned the public schools. There are good people who still believe that they should go into the school system, day after day, trying to bring salt and light into the system. It is so hard for them to see that what they as adults feel called to do is not a task for tender and vulnerable children. It is one thing for a Christian superintendent to try to change her public school system. It is another thing for a Christian parent to entrust a six-year-old to a system that will not encourage the child to talk to the invisible God, but exchanges the glory of God for images of men and birds and reptiles—or even teddy bears!
Virginia's "O.J. Case"
Two parents who are not members of HSLDA were handcuffed in Fredericksburg in October, arrested, and charged with a crime punishable by up to 12 months in prison. The claim? Contributing to the delinquency of a child—by home schooling him.
Fredericksburg-area home school leaders scrambled to find out whether this family was, in fact, home schooling and discovered the following.
Mr. and Mrs. Calhoun had taught their son, Orlando James, at home in Georgia last year, although they did not apparently comply with every requirement of Georgia law. When they moved to Virginia this year, they put their son in the local public school. The boy, who is black, is nicknamed "O.J.," and this led to repeated violence at the school. When the parents requested information on home schooling in Virginia, public school officials gave no response. They finally withdrew their son from school. The school's response was swift and harsh—handcuffs and jail.
Local support group leaders are still working to establish contact with the Calhouns. The Calhouns' attorney has contacted Home School Legal Defense Association to work out a set of appropriate defenses for this family. The next step in their case should be to file an immediate appeal with an independent hearing officer, challenging the Fredericksburg superintendent's refusal to recognize them as home schoolers.
This case is very similar to a case in Oklahoma where two black families decided to begin home schooling after years of difficulty with their public school district. Local experienced home school leadership has worked closely with these two Oklahoma families and have been able to persuade school officials and prosecutors to reconsider criminal charges which had been filed against them. As more and more families with a past truancy problem consider home schooling, it is imperative that the existing home school community work with them to rescue them from a failing school system.
