Court orders Christian child into government education
10-year-old's 'vigorous' defense of her faith condemned by judge
A 10-year-old homeschool girl described as "well liked, social and interactive with her peers, academically promising and intellectually at or superior to grade level" has been told by a New Hampshire court official to attend a government school because she was too "vigorous" in defense of her Christian faith.
The decision from Marital Master Michael Garner reasoned that the girl's "vigorous defense of her religious beliefs to [her] counselor suggests strongly that she has not had the opportunity to seriously consider any other point of view."
The recommendation was approved by Judge Lucinda V. Sadler, but it is being challenged by attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund, who said it was "a step too far" for any court.
The ADF confirmed today it has filed motions with the court seeking reconsideration of the order and a stay of the decision sending the 10-year-old student in government-run schools in Meredith, N.H.
The dispute arose as part of a modification of a parenting plan for the girl. The parents divorced in 1999 when she was a newborn, and the mother has homeschooled her daughter since first grade with texts that meet all state standards.
In addition to homeschooling, the girl attends supplemental public school classes and has also been involved in a variety of extra-curricular sports activities, the ADF reported.
But during the process of negotiating the terms of the plan, a guardian ad litem appointed to participate concluded the girl "appeared to reflect her mother's rigidity on questions of faith" and that the girl's interests "would be best served by exposure to a public school setting" and "different points of view at a time when she must begin to critically evaluate multiple systems of belief ... in order to select, as a young adult, which of those systems will best suit her own needs."
According to court documents, the guardian ad litem earlier had told the mother, "If I want her in public school, she'll be in public school."
The marital master hearing the case proposed the Christian girl be ordered into public school after considering "the impact of [her religious] beliefs on her interaction with others."
"Parents have a fundamental right to make educational choices for their children. In this case specifically, the court is illegitimately altering a method of education that the court itself admits is working," said ADF-allied attorney John Anthony Simmons of Hampton.
"The court is essentially saying that the evidence shows that, socially and academically, this girl is doing great, but her religious beliefs are a bit too sincerely held and must be sifted, tested by, and mixed among other worldviews. This is a step too far for any court to take."
"The New Hampshire Supreme Court itself has specifically declared, 'Home education is an enduring American tradition and right,'" said ADF Senior Legal Counsel Mike Johnson. "There is clearly and without question no legitimate legal basis for the court's decision, and we trust it will reconsider its conclusions."
The case, handled in the Family Division of the Judicial Court for Belknap County in Laconia, involves Martin Kurowski and Brenda Kurowski (Voydatch), and their daughter.
The ADF also argued that the issue already was raised in 2006 and rejected by the court.
"Most urgent … is the issue of Amanda's schooling as the school year has begun and Amanda is being impacted by the court's decision daily," the court filing requesting a stay said. "Serious state statutory and federal constitutional concerns are implicated by the court's ruling and which need to be remedied without delay.
"It is not the proper role of the court to insist that Amanda be 'exposed to different points of view' if the primary residential parent has determined that it is in Amanda's best interest not to be exposed to secular influences that would undermine Amanda's faith, schooling, social development, etc. The court is not permitted to demonstrate hostility toward religion, and particularly the faith of Amanda and Mother, by removing Amanda from the home and thrusting her into an environment that the custodial parent deems detrimental to Amanda."
"The order assumes that because Amanda has sincerely held Christian beliefs, there must be a problem that needs solving. It is a parent's constitutionally protected right to train up their children in the religious beliefs that they hold. It is not up to the court to suggest that a 10-year-old should be 'exposed' to other religious views contrary to the faith traditions of her parents. Could it not be that this sharp 10-year-old 'vigorously' believes what she does because she knows it to be true? The court's narrative suggests that 10-year-olds are too young to form opinions and that they are not yet allowed to have sincerely held Christian beliefs," the ADF said.
"Absent any other clear and convincing evidence justifying the court's decision, it would appear that the court has indeed taken sides with regard to the issue of religion and has preferred one religious view over another (or the absence of religion). This is impermissible," the documents said.
The guardian ad litem had an anti-Christian bias, the documents said, telling the mother at one point she wouldn't even look at homeschool curriculum.
"I don't want to hear it. It's all Christian based," she said.
child suicide
For the greater good, the liberty of a nation trumps the life of a child, I can fully appreciate that, but I thought I'd share a personal story to illustrate why a libertarian would have a knee jerk reaction to this article that differs from most others.
My first response, as you can read below, was that it sounded pretty good to me that a judge took measures to protect a child from religion.
A couple of years ago, my 10 year old nephew killed himself by putting a rifle in his mouth and pulling the trigger. His mother and father were perfectly loving parents, and he was raised in a healthy, normal home. They lived on a Air Force base, they drove a Honda Odyssey, they went to a standard megachurch, he had a brother and sister, and there was plenty of affection, cleanliness, nourishment, play, and reasonable discipline. They didn't watch too much TV or play too many video games. Use of the computer was limited and monitored. His mother was a little too overbearing, and his father was a little too non-assertive, but nothing you would fault them for in a serious way.
He was remarkably good at sports, especially baseball. He had a small speech impediment that he got teased about occassionally. He did something remarkable in the year before he died: he read The Bible from front to back, twice.
I don't know what upset him before he died. It could have been any of the basic things, being teased, being ashamed of something, being angry at his parents or siblings, being angry at himself. It could have been something chemical or genetic that affected his emotions. Who knows?
By the age of 10, a child really hasn't figured it out yet that all things pass, that if you're having a bad day or a bad week that eventually it will pass over. Children don't have that kind of common sense yet that charactizes the maturity even adults struggle to maintain. It's especially difficult to distinguish impulses from actions, thoughts from feelings, and fact from fantasy.
I'm an atheist, so you probably see where this is going.
What's it like to be a 10 year old boy who's reading The Bible from back to front, twice, while struggling with all the confusing signals of growing up? Now, Sunday school can't be all bad...there's easter eggs, fingerpaints, fun songs to sing, friends and games, and little stories about love and all that. But the Book of Job? Genesis, Revelations? Are there enough fingers and toes on you and me to count how many people in The Bible get killed? Look at all the rape, murder, revenge, human sacrifice, genocide, war, plague, and seriously dramatic mindgames going on in that book. Are children mature enough for that? Are they mature enough to distinguish the metaphoric from literal?
Can you think of any examples from The Bible where the brutal martyrdom of a special individual is glorified? Let's see, when the going gets tough, the hero gets crucified, but it's okay because he gets resurrected a couple of days later. Self-sacrifice is romanticized, idolized, and only temporary!
Life is precious. When a child you've known from a baby ends up as a corpse with half his head splattered on wall, it affects your perspective on things.
Sure, it's just a religion, it's a myth, a story, a fantasy world. It's no different from Dungeons and Dragons, or the Harry Potter books. It's just fiction, it's just a form of free speech. But the vulnerability of childhood combined with the violence of Christianity, or any other fantasy world, can be a dangerous thing.
However, the value of Liberty trumps the value of a child's life. I know that.
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The Philosophy Of Liberty -
http://www.jonathangullible.com/mmedia/PoL.English.The.Philo...
Free State Project Indeed
Hmmmph!
Something to consider for families who plan to join the free state project.
What about South Dakota
for a new free state.......any SDers here? What do you think? I've been reading much about sd and it looks good on paper........no income tax, one time property tax on autos, etc. Coming from CT almost anywhere looks good, but how is it there?
Colchester, New London County, Connecticut
down the street
The Black Hills area seems pretty cool. There are lots of pine forests around there that could give a CTer a familiar feeling. Plenty of open space for camping and hiking, some nice lakes. The west has far fewer people, which takes a lot of pressure off in the stress of traffic, etc.
It's worth a road trip to find out for yourself.
But who's going to protect the children from
government propaganda, socialism, militarism, etc. in the schools?
Got to get rid of the public schools AND the parasitic "counselors" and fascist "marital masters," and self-promoting CPS, and power-mad judges.
.
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The family
should move out of state.
What I want to know is..
Why this doesn't rise to the level of "bad behavior" on the part of the judge making them eligible for impeachment?
Clearly the State forcing its religious tolerance stance on a citizen, especially in contravention of established law and judicial precedent would suffice as not being "good behavior" by the judge.
There must be a point where judges, legislators, and executives cannot make any absurd and patently false argument they want simply to give the appearance that they are "just doing their job." A clear and obvious violation of law and government charter should be sufficient grounds for impeachment in any case. Why are we not seeing more such impeachments?
That's a good question...
- anyone have an answer?
__________________
We are whipping folks back into shape, we are going to get this done!" Barack Obama, in reference to Blue Dog Opposition to the Kennedy?Obama Health (S)Care Bill.
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"The most terrifying words in the English language are: 'I'm from the government, and I'm here to help.'" Ronald Reagan
But that man should play the tyrant over God, and find Him a better man than himself, is astonishing drama indeed!~~D. Sayers
There is no difference between an authoritarian government from the right or the left...F. A.Schaeffer
It's always instructive
to watch how the gov't, and gov't influenced sectors of society, deal with the groups that they want to marginalize and eventually destroy.
The reason why it's instructive is because that's what they are going to do to you too, once they get done with the first groups and start moving in on others.
What they can do to others, they can do to you. It's only a matter of whether they decide to.
Poor New Hampshire
I lived there for a few years and, apart from my friends, I didn't much like it. Northern New England can be cold in more ways than one. It is pretty though, and good for hunting and fishing and NASCAR. Vermont is a little more 'conscious' in my humble opinion.
Very surprised about this school nonsense. I suspect this case could be overturned on appeal, or an appeal to the governor.
Something similar
http://www.infowars.com/texas-adult-protective-services-kidn...
Here's a story from Infowars about the state of Texas taking over the lives of an elderly couple. It's a tear jerker that will piss you off.
Government should stay out of people's lives, for better or for worse. It's one thing to be available to provide assistance, but it's quite another to force a citizen to comply against their will.
WTF?!! This country is
WTF?!!
This country is truly going down the drain. Even the supposedly "free" states of Texas and New Hampshire. I can only imagine what goes on in the more genuine police states. I guess, unless you are simply another indoctrinated worker bee for the in charge riff raff, you either must be indoctrinated into becoming one, or simply stuffed away in a box while the riff raff plunders you until you are broke; while peacocking around pretending to be something more than the brain-dead, self righteous, subhuman trash that they are. And the idiots that seem to comprise the voting majority of this dump, sit there starry eyed and swallow hook, line and sinker the notion that "the state taking care of people" is a good idea. 'cause "care for" sounds nice, you know guh,guh, guh,...
The only way out of this is to get rid of these "protective services" agencies. Completely. Whatever the means and whatever the consequences. Not one single one of them have done one single useful thing in one single state since their inception. They are, to a person, absolutely nothing but a blight on the planet and should be treated accordingly.
So much for
New Hampshire being such a free state!
Exactly my thoughts! What a
Exactly my thoughts! What a blight on a supposedly free state. Where are those gun toting tree of liberty waterers when you need them?
It does look like the FSP'ers there are stuck fighting a losing battle against the tide of unwashed trash flowing across their southern border by the tens of thousands every year. Maybe Wyoming makes more sense, after all.
I've been saying Wyoming for years
http://www.freestatewyoming.org/
"There can be only one permanent revolution - a moral one: The regeneration of the inner man."
—Tolstoy
"The body is but a vessel for the soul,
A puppet which bends to the soul's tyranny.
And lo, the body is not eternal,
For it must feed on the flesh of others,
Lest it return to the dust whence it came.
Therefore the soul deceives and despises."
no, no, no, no, no
You don't want to come to Wyoming. It's very ugly. And cold. Very ugly, very cold. Please stay where you are.
I'm just joking!!!
Please come visit...(and then leave).
By what rationale?
She too closely reflects her mother's religious beliefs so we'll send her to a public school where she can enjoy the benefits of having no religious beliefs taught her at all?
What nonsense. The judge overstepped. She'll be corrected.
I may not know the truth, but I know when I'm being lied to...
I may not know the truth, but I know when I'm being lied to...
If I were forced to go
I would certainly go. But I think they would have a difficult time getting me to wear PANTS.
Then will they want me?
Never mind, then they'd lock me in their psychiatric scam for life.
When good clean fun becomes insanity, you know you have too damn much gubment
'Live for yourself, there's no one else more worth living for,
Begging hands and bleeding hearts
Will only cry out for more...'
'Live for yourself, there's no one else more worth living for,
Begging hands and bleeding hearts
Will only cry out for more...'
I have many times thought about what I would do
if my children were forced to go to public school. I figured I would go with them, and watch for the first time their/my religious rights were violated. I am pretty sure it would happen very soon. Then I would sue them for an amount that would make them want to send my child/children back home. do you think that would work?
They probably wouldn't let
They probably wouldn't let you stay. Maybe for a while then they say you were a distraction and that it was embarrassing your kid and the other kids would harass your kid because Mommy was at school and...no, it wouldn't work.
But something's gonna give real soon. The people are getting tired of all this bullshit.
I'm just one more atheist who loves liberty, but I'll stand by you on the day of reckoning.
Never surrender.
Ron Paul Explorer: The All Paul Search Engine
Thank you, my friend
- from another homeschooling parent!
________________
We are whipping folks back into shape, we are going to get this done!" Barack Obama, in reference to Blue Dog Opposition to the Health (S)Care Bill.
-
"The most terrifying words in the English language are: 'I'm from the government, and I'm here to help.'" Ronald Reagan
But that man should play the tyrant over God, and find Him a better man than himself, is astonishing drama indeed!~~D. Sayers
There is no difference between an authoritarian government from the right or the left...F. A.Schaeffer
No Pants?
Talk about the pubic school system...
Ron Paul Explorer: The All Paul Search Engine
Turnabout is Fair Play
If the state wishes to force kids out of homeschooling because it prevents children from having "the opportunity to seriously consider any other point of view," then the state should also force all kids currently in public school into homeschooling so that they will gain the benefit of another point of view.
Just kidding of course, but also making the point that the state is not interested in providing kids with multiple points of view but rather in enforcing their own singular point of view.
Revolution, now!
Ron Paul Explorer: The All Paul Search Engine
rescind all signatures on
rescind all signatures on the state marraige contract and stop contracting with the court and attorneys. When you signed the marraige contract you made the state a 3rd party to the contract on the superior position giving your kids to the state you can rescind that signature based on fraud because it was not disclosed to you what you were doing.
You then need to rebut the presumption that you are a surety for the United States Debt and that your kids are yours and not wards of the state for collateral on the debt. This is done by filing a UCC1 financing statement and property list listing your kids among other things and filing a legal notice and demand in your county including various documents rebutting all presumptions and rescinding all signatures.
You would have to fire your attorneys since they are officers of the court and refuse to contract with the judge court etc. Takes some learning and some courage but it works. However what it the price of freedom? About 18 hours of learning for a basic understanding and a day or two to fill out the initial paperwork you would need for your case and about week to get it all filed and acknowledged. Email me if you want more information.
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End The Fat
70 pounds lost and counting! Get in shape for the revolution!
Get Prepared!
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End The Fat
70 pounds lost and counting! Get in shape for the revolution!
Get Prepared!
You sound like George
You sound like George Gordon. You gave her excellent advice.
I won't get married in NM because they require a marriage license. I called my attorney about this a few weeks ago. I don't care if I am not married, I am past the point of having kids.
“Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value - zero”. Voltaire-1729
www.4HUTS.com
“Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value - zero”. Voltaire-1729
www.4HUTS.com
Try this in Saudi Arabia and see what happens.
I'm sure the occultists and (pretend) atheists here are going to love this.
Spoken like a true zealot...
It's not about her being a christian, you assclown. It is about the government stepping on her right to believe something in the first place. Not to mention any ~supposed~ rights her parents have to raise the child as they see fit.
Pull your religion off of your sleeve and start trying to see things from a ~freedom~ standpoint... you'll be laughed at less.
~Live life to its fullest, with an open heart, open arms and most important... an open mind~
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The Philosophy Of Liberty -
http://www.jonathangullible.com/mmedia/PoL.English.The.Philo...