LEGAL/LEGISLATIVE UPDATES
ACROSS THE STATES

INDIANA

Officer pries for information

A quick-thinking Home School Legal Defense Association member recently demonstrated the importance of citizens understanding and courteously asserting their rights. When a truant officer called this Vincennes-area family, referring to their 11th grade daughter by name and asking for the names and ages of another brother and sister in the family, the mother politely and firmly declined to give this private information.

After unsuccessfully trying to convince the mother that she needed to register her homeschooled students, the truant officer berated her, accused her of breaking the law, and added, "It is the few homeschoolers like you who refuse to register who cause problems for truant officers."

Keeping both her composure and her courtesy in the face of this stress, the mother reasserted that she did not have to register and that the officer should continue the conversation with the family's attorney at HSLDA.

We called and wrote the truant officer, pointing out that her demands exceeded state law. Neither HSLDA nor our member family has received any response from the truant officer after more than three months.

Although sometimes sparks may fly when informed parents stand on their rights, usually their stand results in school officials developing a greater respect not only for an individual family's rights, but also for the rights of all homeschoolers in the state. We salute this mother for her contribution to the protection of all Indiana homeschoolers.

— Scott A. Woodruff