The sad story of a home school mom who lost her children in a temporary order in a divorce case in a small, rural county in Texas continues. For those who are not familiar with the case, the couple had been married for eleven years and home schooled for many years, all with the approval of the father. When he decided that he wanted a divorce, the airline pilot told his wife that his parents “own the courthouse” and “We will take the children from you, and there is nothing you can do.” [Read more...]

More and more we are reading news accounts from states where there is a growing effort to develop support for increased state regulation for home schooling. One recent article in Ohio referenced the need for regulation, saying, “Stanford University political science and education professor Rob Reich likened it to ‘the Wild West,’ with nearly half the states having either no regulations or low regulations.” A recent column in Indiana lamented the fact that the “Indiana (Education) Code…specifically exempts homeschooling parents from all curricula and programs mandated in the public schools.” [Read more...]

Last year the Texas home school community and THSC rallied to the support of a single, fit father in Tarrant County who had lost his daughter to her grandparents by the action of Judge C. Randy Catterton of Tarrant County. The “temporary” order that he issued had resulted in the grandparents having possession and control of his daughter for three years in spite of the fact that no evidence was presented that the father was unfit in any way.

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In what can only be described as a vendetta, Houston CPS workers illegally took two small grandchildren from a loving, Christian, single grandmother to cover their own failure to investigate a complaint three months earlier regarding the children’s exposure to drug use. THSC has responded by suing CPS in a federal civil rights case. [Read more...]

Yesterday in the Cameron courthouse, the fit mom who lost her children in a temporary order by a judge in a custody case was back in court after an earlier hearing last week in which she asked the court to give her “right of first refusal” so that when her husband travels 50 to 75 percent of the time, she, instead of the grandparents, might have her children. The grandparents have had the children as a result of Judge Youngblood’s original ruling requiring they be granted that right when the husband was out of town. Yesterday the judge ruled that the mom can have the children when the husband is out of town for more than two days. [Read more...]

The home school mother who had her children taken from her last week as the result of District Judge John Youngblood’s ruling in a custody case was back in court in Cameron yesterday. She has moved from New Braunfels back to Rockdale, in Milam County, in an effort to have more time with her children under the temporary orders set by Judge Youngblood in the case. [Read more...]

Last Friday about 40 home school parents and teens went to the court hearing in Cameron, in Milam County, to show their support for the home school mom in a custody hearing in which her in-laws and her husband tried to convince the judge to take her three children from her and place them with the grandparents and father. Although the judge accused the mother’s attorney of being responsible for the “mob” in the courtroom, referring to the home schoolers supporting the mother, several who had been to previous hearings noted that the tone and tenor of the court and of the judge seemed to be more balanced than in earlier hearings. [Read more...]

I wrote last week about a custody case in Cameron, in which a father and his parents are seeking to take his children from their mother on the basis that she had homeschooled the children. The case continues tomorrow and has served to remind me of the continuing challenge that parents—and particularly home school parents—face, which is the challenge of justice in regard to their rights as parents to make decisions for their children. [Read more...]