RSS
Home
Court orders Christian homeschooled girl to attend public school
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
LACONIA, New Hampshire — A homeschooled girl has been ordered into a government-run public school for having a “bit too sincerely held” Christian beliefs, according to a legal team specializing in religious liberty defense.
U.S. NEWS REPORT
In a news release available online at the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) Web site, it states:
“Although the marital master making recommendations to the court agreed the child is ‘well liked, social and interactive with her peers, academically promising, and intellectually at or superior to grade level’ and that ‘it is clear that the home schooling…has more than kept up with the academic requirements of the…public school system,’ he nonetheless proposed that the Christian girl be ordered into a government-run school after considering ‘the impact of [her religious] beliefs on her interaction with others.’ The court approved the order.”
ADF allied attorney John Anthony Simmons has filed motions with a New Hampshire court, asking it to reconsider its order to send the 10-year-old homeschooled girl into public school.
Simmons said the court acknowledges that the girl in question is doing well socially and academically, but he adds that the court went too far when they determined that the girl’s Christian faith was a “bit too sincerely held and must be sifted, tested by, and mixed among other worldviews.”
Simmons contends that parents have a “fundamental right to make educational choices for their children.” However, the girl’s parents divorced in 1999, and she is now living with her mother who has been homeschooling the child since first grade. As part of the schooling, the young girl has been attending supplemental public school classes.
As part of parental custody hearings, a court-appointed guardian (marital master) stated that the child reflected her mother’s “rigidity” on questions of faith and added that girl’s best interest would be served by exposure to a public school setting.
According to the New Hampshire Supreme Court, Home Education is an enduring American tradition and right. ADF concludes, based on that statement, that there is no legitimate legal basis for this latest court ruling.
Sources: OneNewsNow.com and the Alliance Defense Fund.
More articles by Alex Murashko at LA Church & State Examiner.
Related Articles:
Comments
