WARSAW, VA—Home schooling parents in Richmond County, Virginia, filed a civil rights lawsuit today against the Richmond County School Board and an assistant elementary school principal who two weeks ago stepped outside the bounds of the law to have them arrested.

Gerald and Angela Balderson withdrew their eight-year-old son from the public school to educate him at home. They provided the local school superintendent with the required legal notice on February 25, 2000.

However, Bryan Almasian, the assistant principal at Richmond County Elementary School, failed to notify or check with the superintendent before having the Baldersons arrested on March 17, 2000, for violation of compulsory attendance laws. Both parents were taken to the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office and released later that evening.

According to the lawsuit, Almasian is guilty of gross negligence, false arrest and violation of the Fourteenth Amendment guarantee of due process of law. The lawsuit seeks a $50,000 compensatory award, and $50,000 in punitive damages for each parent.

The Baldersons are represented by David Gordon, an attorney with the Home School Legal Defense Association. According to Michael Farris, constitutional attorney and president of HSLDA, the Baldersons followed Virginia’s legal requirements for home schooling their son. The school system should have done the same.

“Virginia law is clear on the parental options for home schooling,” Farris said. “Under the first option, parents notify the superintendent in their local school district of their intent to home school. The Baldersons did this three weeks before they were falsely arrested.”

Virginia law is also clear on how public school systems should handle truancy charges, Farris explained. “It is totally inconsistent with Virginia law for an assistant principal to file truancy charges, when the superintendent is responsible for determining whether they are in compliance with the law.”

HSLDA is a Virginia-based advocacy organization with more than 3,500 member families in Virginia, and 62,000 nationwide.

Home schoolers falsely arrested in Richmond County