WARSAW, VA—If administrators in the Richmond County Schools had followed Virginia truancy laws, a local home schooling couple would not have been arrested and detained at the Richmond County Police Station.

Gerald and Angela Balderson were arrested Friday, March 17, 2000, after truancy charges were filed against them by Bryan Almasion, assistant principal at Richmond County Elementary School. Charges were dropped Wednesday, March 22, 2000, when Richmond County Assistant School Superintendent Bob Luttrell determined that the Baldersons were legally home schooling their son.

Virginia law requires home schoolers to notify the superintendent of their intention to home school. The Baldersons provided their notice on Feb. 25, 2000. Virginia law also stipulates that school superintendents, not other school administrators, are to file truancy charges.

The Baldersons were arrested because an assistant principal went straight to the courts rather than going through his superintendent, as the law requires. If he had followed the law, he would have discovered from the superintendent’s office that the Baldersons were not guilty of truancy, but were lawfully home schooling.

According to the Home School Legal Defense Association, if the administrators had stayed within the bounds of long-standing, well-established law, the Baldersons could have been spared the humiliation of a public arrest.

“There is no excuse for this treatment of the Baldersons,” said attorney Michael Farris, president of the Virginia-based HSLDA. “Virginia law is clear on how public schools are to handle student absences and truancy. These administrators simply did not follow the law.”

Virginia’s home schooling provisions are straightforward, Farris explained. “Under the first home schooling option in Virginia, parents notify the superintendent in their local school district of their intent to home school. The Baldersons did this. The superintendent is responsible for determining whether they are in compliance with the law. It is wrong and irresponsible for an assistant elementary school principal to file truancy charges.”

The Home School Legal Defense Association is a national advocacy organization with more than 62,000 member families across the country, and more than 3,500 in Virginia.

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