Deliberate Dumbing of Our Children
Document 029.0.0.1 # 2
District digs its heels in over home educators Family facing prosecution,
jail over 'truancy' considers lawsuit.
By Diana Lynne.
San Juan Unified School District officials show no sign of yielding in
their truancy case against a home schooling family and, to the contrary, are
taking steps to crack down on all home schooling.
Joseph Tucker, the district coordinator of the Student Attendance Review
Board plans to address the issue with state education officials next month,
seeking to reform and clarify California compulsory education laws,
according to the Sacramento Bee. A call to Tucker was not returned.
As WorldNetDaily reported last month, Tucker referred the case of Sandra
and David Sorensen to the Sacramento County district attorney's office for
prosecution. The Sorensens face up to one year in jail if found guilty of
"contributing to the delinquency of a minor." To Tucker, who enforces state
compulsory attendance laws, the Sorensen's 10-year-old son has been truant
since January when the couple decided to home school, formally
withdrawing him from Carmichael Elementary School.
"It seems that once you enroll a child in the San Juan School District they
think he's a possession for life," Sandra Sorensen told WorldNetDaily.
Sorensen claims her son, who suffers from Attention Deficit Hyperactivity
Disorder, was being harassed at school to the point of damaging his
well-being. She cites an unusual policy of children giving suspensions to
other children. Sorensen says her son began bringing home green cards
apparently filled out by children and signed by a teacher and the principal
in October. By December, the 10-year-old was coming home with numerous
suspensions each day and, as a result, suffered a loss of self-esteem.
According to Sorensen, when she informed the school that she had decided to
remove her son from the "unhealthy environment" and home school, Carmichael
principal Deborah Kraus made numerous threats in person and over the
telephone to her over the decision. Kraus did not return calls seeking
comment, and her assistant referred "questions regarding the Sorensen case"
to Tucker. Sorensen sees Tucker's pursuit of the case, including his
request for a copy of her "appropriate business license," Department of
Justice fingerprint certification, and a copy of her Bachelors Degree and
college transcripts as a continuation of the school's harassment.
"By law I'm required to fully and impartially investigate any complaints in
regards to truancy and to verify whether or not if in fact the student is
truant," Tucker maintains, and stated the requested documentation was to
help him "ascertain that this is indeed a private school."
California education code does not address home schooling and is considered
by the state to be "unauthorized." The compulsory education law which dates
back to 1874 requires "each person between 6 and 18 years of age to attend
public full-time day school ... unless legally exempt." Carolyn Pirillo, a
deputy general counsel in the state department of education lists the
exemptions as attendance at a private, full-time day school, education via a
credentialed tutor or independent study through the public school district.
Private schools are neither regulated nor monitored by the state, and are
not required to comply with public school district standards. And because
the education code doesn't specifically define what a private school is,
many families have elected to set up private schools within their homes. The
Sorensens have done just that, filing an affidavit, called the R-4, required
by private schools with the state.
Tucker told the Sacramento Bee that receipt of the affidavit by the county
is not an endorsement of a private school, and until the issue is sorted
out, there can't be a gap in a student's enrollment in public school. The
law does not require that private school instructors hold a teaching
credential, but they must be "capable of teaching." Because the "wording is
vague, the law is subject to debate," Tucker is quoted by the Bee as saying.
"They're going to try to get my R-4 annulled and then try to prosecute me.
That's not fair. I've followed the letter of the law and they're bullying
us," Sorensen complains.
"What the district is doing is embellishing [education code] to read into
the statute what is not there ... to keep families from home schooling,"
says Will Rogers, an attorney retained by the California Home school Network
for the Sorensens.
"An R-4 is only a registration document," Pirillo told WorldNetDaily,
"Filing it doesn't transform the situation into a private school. A parent
is not a private school."
Pirillo disagrees that the law is vague. "Teachers in the public school
system and private tutors are required by law to hold teaching credentials.
Tutors or parents without credentials can't declare themselves private
schools to avoid the requirements. If everybody in the state said 'I'm a
tutor without a credential so I'm a private school' then what would be the
point in requiring a credential of a tutor?" Pirillo adds that case law
dating back to 1953 shows the courts interpreting the legislation requiring
tutors to be credentialed as "not meaningless." Pirillo cites People v.
Turner and In re Shinn as two published appellate court rulings that reject
the concept that parents may call their own home instruction program a
"private school" in order to avoid the credential requirement.
As the San Juan Unified School district officials build their legal case
against the Sorensens and seek law reform and clarification from the state,
Sandra Sorensen asks "Why go to this length? Should I give in and give up my
rights to see how my son gets educated because that's what they want?"
Carol Guardia, a former child welfare and attendance coordinator for
Sacramento County insists district officials are merely looking out for the
educational welfare of the students. "For every competent home schooler out
there, there are 300 who are not, using it for an excuse to keep their kids
home," Guardia told WorldNetDaily. "There are hundreds of thousands that
are 'home schooling.' What would be involved in pulling these kids in? It
would be a police state."
A "police state" is precisely what home-school advocates fear, and what the
Sorensens feel they're getting a taste of. "I think at this point they're
not going to stop until they get what they want," says Sandra Sorensen. "I
hadn't considered a lawsuit against the school district. But now we're
considering it."
029.0.0.1 # 2 End.
>>>>Disclaimer: This document may be used as you will except: If you
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"I do verily believe that a single, consolidated government would become the
most corrupt government on earth." Thomas Jefferson to Gideon Granger, 1800.
"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the
argument of tyrants, it is the creed of slaves." William Pitt speech to the
House of Commons.
"You shall have one world government, whether or not you like it, by consent
or by conquest." Former FDR aide, James Warburg CFR/TC, in testimony before
the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, 17 Feb 1950.