Mike Farris:
German homeschool leaders are working on new strategies to effectively secure homeschooling freedoms for their country. HSLDA Attorney Mike Donnelly is with me again today to talk about some of the specific cases of the families that are facing persecution for homeschooling in Germany. Mike, can you tell us about some of these families?

Mike Donnelly:
Mike, there are scores of brave families who are homeschooling in Germany in spite of these serious threats that we’ve been talking about. For example, the Paul and Plett families who emmigrated from Russia to Germany seeking to escape from harsh circumstances found even harsher ones. These deeply religious people had purposed to homeschool their children and would not bend to the fines that the state was imposing on them, the threat of the loss of custody and even jail time. These families were represented by Schuzh, the German homeschool organization, and were among the earliest homeschool cases in Germany. Their case is the one that I had talked about earlier, where the termination of parental rights and removal of custody was justified because the families homeschooled. There have even been several cases were the police had been involved to remove children from their home, such as the case of Melissa Busekros, who was taken from her family last year. This case caused an international outcry when the police showed up with about 15 officers to remove Melissa from her home because she was homeschooled.

Farris:
Mike, whenever I hear reports about Germany, I am not only grateful for the current freedom we enjoy, but for the founding principles of this country that our founders gave us at great sacrifice. I’m Mike Farris.