Why do people have this idea that homeschooling is some sort of nefarious front for child abusers? - Page 4

[sha_lyn]

The point is that if a child is enrolled in school there are adults outside of the family who are regularly seeing the child and who have the possibility of reporting the situation if the child appears abused or neglected.

The sorts of terribly heartbreaking cases that have hit the media - like children starved to death, beaten severely, locked in cages get people wondering. Could it have reached this point if the kids were in school? Sometimes the answer to that question is no, and that's part of why these abusers use homeschooling as a shield when they pull their kids out of school. Again, I'm sure this is a statistically insignificant number of cases, but they are horrifying and it is these cases that get the public's attention.

So what about children who are abused and haven't reach the age to attend school yet? Following this line of thinking, there should be some type of accountablity in place for those to young to be enrolled in school.

Not to mention that in many states with higher HS regulations, there still isn't any perosnal contact. There is more paper work, test scores must be submitted etc.

It always me when 'journalists' (referring to the links posted) feel the need to state that the children abused were 'homeschooled'... just like it bothers me when they point out in news stories that someone arrested for a crime was black/asian/aboriginal. It's not RELEVANT. And the only thing it serves to do is make people who ordinarily wouldn't have an opinion about homeschooling at all, jump to absurd conclusions.

ITA and just wanted to add that even one of the articles linked to says that the family had not been compliant with the homeschool laws and the asumption was that they had moved or had enrolled the kids in school.

[CariOfOz]

I missed this before, so I'm quoting it out of sha_lyn's post

The sorts of terribly heartbreaking cases that have hit the media - like children starved to death, beaten severely, locked in cages get people wondering. Could it have reached this point if the kids were in school? Sometimes the answer to that question is no, and that's part of why these abusers use homeschooling as a shield when they pull their kids out of school. Again, I'm sure this is a statistically insignificant number of cases, but they are horrifying and it is these cases that get the public's attention.

Bolded mine... that's so irrelevant it's almost ludicrous? Does anyone here really think that the 'parents' in those severe cases of child abuse & torture would send their kids to school? Those people would simply never register their child for school to begin with, thus never entering the radar of the school system at all. So school can't help them because they never know about them. Homeschooling isnt' a factor there, because they are not homeschooling, they are simply not schooling period.

[zeldamomma]

I'm no expert, but it seems to me that there are generally 2 categories of abusive parent, the well-meaning parents who lacks skils/emotional maturity to respond appropriately to the stresses in their lives (who can perhaps be helped to become good parents), and the real nut-cases who commit the truly horrific abuse (who need to be locked up).

As far as I can tell, properly funding CPS would go a long way in helping kids in the first kind of family, especially if they homeschool. As a taxpayer, it bothers me that the court system thinks that schools should be tasked with keeping an eye on kids with questionable family lives. IMO, teachers (and all adults) should report possible abuse to CPS, but after that, CPS should take over and should check on families with a history of abuse/neglect periodically. Teachers shouldn't have to be social workers in addition to teaching, and CPS shouldn't need a constant stream of reports to remember that a family exists.

Catching the real nut-cases is much harder, and I would hate to force all parents to undergo the kind of restrictions it would take to catch people who would go as far as caging or intentionally starving a child.
I think that before you suggest laws that restrict the freedom of all parents in order to catch the tiny percentage of wacko abusers, one needs to consider:

1. How will these restrictions negatively impact the children of non-abusive parents?
2. Will the wacko abusers just find a new way to avoid detection?

To some extent, I think we, as a society, need to accept that we can't entirely stop crazy people from doing awful things, without giving up an unreasonable amount of freedom.

[*Jessica*]

Originally Posted by zeldamomma

To some extent, I think we, as a society, need to accept that we can't entirely stop crazy people from doing awful things, without giving up an unreasonable amount of freedom.

I'm not feeling up to an eloquent or well-thought out response, so I'm just going to

[Helen_A]

Originally Posted by limette

Wasn't there something about this in England in the past year? There was a case of abuse and they were using it to put restrictions on homeschooling?

There was a govt agenda to restrict or end home ed here in the uk. The child abuse case was convinient to that, but the child was not ever ~HE, the social workers used that as an excuse for not following up her schools reported concerns when her mother withdrew her after the school raising concerns as to the child's wellbeing.

We then had a govt. minister go on national media to state that HE'ers were all suspect, and sadly that then entered the media psyche. A whole load of rent-seekers have perpetuated this myth as a reason why their organisations and chrities should get tax payers money et etc....

good UK blogs on the subject are Sometimesitspeaceful and renegadeparent. Kellygreenandgold has a North American perspective on it all.

As things stand we've had a change of govt. and its become a non-issue again... but for how long before the next attack who knows?? :0

[phathui5]

So what about children who are abused and haven't reach the age to attend school yet? Following this line of thinking, there should be some type of accountablity in place for those to young to be enrolled in school.

That's a good point, and my understanding is that more abuse happens to the under 5 set than school aged children.

[annettemarie]

I must just have a mental block about this idea of school as a safety net. I was abused for 15 years before anyone stepped in and stopped my mother, and then it was family who finally spoke up, not anyone from the school district or CPS.

[CariOfOz]

Originally Posted by annettemarie

I must just have a mental block about this idea of school as a safety net. I was abused for 15 years before anyone stepped in and stopped my mother, and then it was family who finally spoke up, not anyone from the school district or CPS.

Like I said before, schools miss FAR too many cases of abuse to be considered a good way of catching abusers.

Both of my neighbors growing up were sexually abused by their adoptive father, schools don't catch that. Many kids that suffer abuse try to 'act normal' because they are made to feel so NOT normal by their abusers...it's beyond me why people (like the person that made the original remark to the OP) think that schools are going to be able to pick up on that? A big bruise across the face, yeah that they'll spot. A kid who's molested or abused in other ways, not so much The cases that hit the news, those kids would never see the inside of a school *anyway*.


Or.. a great big to zeldamomma

[sha_lyn]

Originally Posted by CariOfOz

Like I said before, schools miss FAR too many cases of abuse to be considered a good way of catching abusers.

Both of my neighbors growing up were sexually abused by their adoptive father, schools don't catch that. Many kids that suffer abuse try to 'act normal' because they are made to feel so NOT normal by their abusers...it's beyond me why people (like the person that made the original remark to the OP) think that schools are going to be able to pick up on that? A big bruise across the face, yeah that they'll spot. A kid who's molested or abused in other ways, not so much The cases that hit the news, those kids would never see the inside of a school *anyway*.


Or.. a great big to zeldamomma

Yep... one of my closest friends was molested by her father for yrs (I did not know her then as she is several yrs younger) . It didn't stop until her step mother found evidence of it when she was in high school. My best friend from 7th grade+ and I were both molested by her uncle. I could go on and on. The fact is that many cases of abuse go unnoticed or ignorred by public school authorities.



Also someone earlier mentioned that they read somewhere that homeschoolers are more likely to be abused than their non homeschooled peers. Actually I read something (on mothering I believe) that stated just the oppisite. That homeschoolers are more likely to use gentle disipline and attachment parenting than the general population.

[CariOfOz]

Originally Posted by sha_lyn

Also someone earlier mentioned that they read somewhere that homeschoolers are more likely to be abused than their non homeschooled peers. Actually I read something (on mothering I believe) that stated just the oppisite. That homeschoolers are more likely to use gentle disipline and attachment parenting than the general population.

I think that it *may* be accurate that hs'ers are likely to spank, just based on the amount of conservative 'spare the rod' types, but that's it. I do not believe that that alone makes us, as a group, suspect as even the vast majority of those that DO spank, are generally loving parents who are parenting according to religious philosophy and not out of anger or intended cruelty.

Still over the fact that ppl actually think that homeschooling could = front for abuse. and OP, I'm afraid that friend would have copped an earful from me