PNN #194 Show Notes http://bit.ly/170VOTI
German Family’s Children Stolen for Criminal Homeschooling
http://www.hslda.org/hs/international/Germany/201308300.asp
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Heroic Peace Activist and living legend Nelson Mandela is in the Hospital suffering from an infection. Doctors say the 95 year old is in stable but critical condition.
Listen up, homeschoolers:
At 8:00 a.m. on Thursday, August 29, 2013, in what has been called a “brutal and vicious act,” a team of 20 social workers, police officers, and special agents stormed a homeschooling family’s residence near Darmstadt, Germany, forcibly removing all four of the family’s children (ages 7-14). The sole grounds for removal were that the parents, Dirk and Petra Wunderlich, continued to homeschool their children in defiance of a German ban on home education.
The children were taken to unknown locations. Officials ominously promised the parents that they would not be seeing their children, quote, “anytime soon.”
The only legal grounds for removal were the family’s continuation of homeschooling their children. There have been no allegations of abuse or neglect. Germany has not even alleged educational neglect for failing to provide an adequate education. The law ignores the educational progress of the child; attendance—and not learning—is the object of the German law.
A family court judge signed the order on August 28 authorizing the immediate seizure of Dirk and Petra Wunderlich’s children. Citing the parents’ failure to cooperate “with the authorities to send the children to school,” the judge also authorized the use of force “against the children” if necessary, reasoning that such force might be required because the children had “adopted the parents’ opinions” regarding homeschooling and that “no cooperation could be expected” from either the parents or the children.
Quote, “I looked through a window and saw many people, police, and special agents, all armed. They told me they wanted to come in to speak with me. I tried to ask questions, but within seconds, three police officers brought a battering ram and were about to break the door in, so I opened it.” - Dirk Wunderlich
The Wunderlichs’ have moved from country to country looking for a place to call home where they could homeschool their children without fearing harassment from government agents. Although they found refuge from homeschool persecution, Mr. Wunderlich was unable to find work, and last year the family had to return to Germany.
It is mandatory that all residents of Germany register with their local municipal authorities. Within days of the family registering their presence in the town, authorities initiated a criminal truancy case, and just months later the “Youth Welfare Office” was granted legal custody of the children.
Authorities even took the children’s passports, making it impossible for the family to escape.
The right of parents to decide how children are educated is a human right of the highest order. So is the right to freely move and to leave a country.
Those who know the family say quote, “They are a delightful family with precious children. They are really just regular people who are doing what millions of people here in the United States do every day.”
How long will bureaucrats order these kinds of brutal acts to be perpetrated against German families? Why is it so important to them to force people into state schools?
Wunderlich said that his 14-year-old daughter Machsejah was forcibly taken out of the home.
Quote, “When I went outside, our neighbor was crying as she watched. I turned around to see my daughter being escorted as if she were a criminal by two big policemen. They weren’t being nice at all. When my wife tried to give my daughter a kiss and a hug goodbye, one of the special agents roughly elbowed her out of the way and said—‘It’s too late for that.’ What kind of government acts like this?”
Petra Wunderlich said her heart was shattered. When the parents asked when they could seek a hearing to contest the seizure of their children, they were told they would have to wait until the regular judge returned from vacation.
You can support the Wunderlich family by donating to the Homeschool Freedom Fund.
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