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OHIO

Promoting freedom in Franklin

Over 175 homeschoolers gathered on the evening of January 5, 2004, to find out why the Franklin City Schools had challenged Ed and Stephanie Garrett's legal homeschool program. After all, the Garretts had submitted almost exactly the same information to the local superintendent this year as they had the previous 12 years of their home education program. This year, however, the superintendent claimed that compliance with the homeschool law was not good enough, and demanded a "brief outline" of the Garretts' plans for teaching physical education, first aid, safety, and fire prevention. Because the Garretts refused to provide this unnecessary information, they faced a hearing and possible further legal action.

The night before representing the Garretts at their hearing, Home School Legal Defense Association Attorney Scott Somerville met with concerned homeschoolers at the Franklin rally. Supporters came from long distances to show their solidarity with this embattled family, including the president of the Butler County School Board, Mary Pritchard, who has been homeschooling for 12 years herself. Pritchard contrasted her positive experience in Butler County with the difficulties the Garretts were facing in Franklin. The crowd cheered HSLDA's call to unity and action. That evening, they formed a new Franklin-area homeschool organization to enable local families to present a united front to the school district.

At the hearing on January 6, public school officials conceded that the Garretts were providing their children with an excellent education. Franklin Director of Educational Services Stephen Buerschen then explained that the district had requested the extraneous information in an attempt to identify children who were suffering from educational neglect.

In response, Somerville pointed out that Ohio law does not allow for an "approval" process whereby government officials determine the validity of individual homeschool programs. Instead, all documentation provided to the school district is "for informational purposes only."

The brand new Franklin-area homeschool organization provided an opportunity for the school officials to interact with people who understood home education, instead of relying on paperwork to "approve" or "reject" homeschool "applications." As Somerville emphasized, some problems cannot be solved by paperwork, only by people. Because local families joined together to stand up for liberty, the right to homeschool in Franklin without discretionary "approval" is now more secure.

— by Scott W. Somerville