Home School Heartbeat Radio Program

This week on Home School Heartbeat Mike Smith talks about one of the most important cases HSLDA has handled in years.

Mike:


Joining me this week to talk about the Stumbo case in North Carolina is HSLDA's litigation attorney Jim Mason. Jim, tell us, how this case got started?


Jim:


Well, Mike back in 1999 the Stumbo family who live in a rural area of North Carolina were getting up in the morning and getting about their business when little Joni Stumbo who was 2 years old saw the kitty cat out in the front yard. Well she happened to be getting ready for the day and she didn't have any clothes on so she snuck outside to find the kitty cat. And her brother a few minutes later went out and brought her back into the house to get her dressed and so forth. Well a couple hours later a social worker showed up at their door. And the social worker wanted to come into their home and interview all of the children privately because they had received a report that Joni had been running around outside naked. When the social worker arrived at the front door asking to interview the children and come inside the home, Mrs. Stumbo picked up the phone and called HSLDA attorneys who spoke with the social worker at the time and prevented the social worker from violating their rights by coming into their home and interviewing their children.


Mike:


Thank you, Jim. We'll look forward to hearing more about how this impacts other social services cases around the country.