Homeschool Nightmare

As a homeschooling parent, the letter below describes a real-life nightmare. This letter is from the Home School Legal Defence Association of Canada, which has an American counterpart. Please consider contacting the people below if you are a homeschooler...or even if you are not but recognize that parental authority out ranks the authority of a pagan government. Although this nightmare is taking place in Germany, international decisions have begun to effect our own laws in various areas. The German government is overstepping their bounds and trespassing on religious and parental freedom.


Home School Legal Defence Association of Canada E-Report

February 23, 2007


Dear HSLDA members and friends,

This month we explained to you what happened to the 15 year old German girl, Melissa, who was being homeschooled, how she was removed from her parent's home by 15 police officers and social workers, and placed into a psychiatric unit at the Nuremburg clinic for school-phobia.

We have now received even more shocking news from HSLDA United States. Last week the German authorities, without consulting or informing the parents, moved Melissa to an undisclosed location. Her contact with her family has been limited to a short conversation once per week. Last Friday the court met to determine further placement of Melissa. The court refused to change its decision but removed the first psychiatrist from the case (Melissa indicated that most of what the first psychiatrist reported was false and that she never said those things). The court is having two new psychiatrists examine Melissa.

Melissa has been moved--for a third time--to a foster home in the country. The first foster family didn't want Melissa anymore because she did not "fit." According to Melissa, the family was apparently bothered by her reading French and translating it into German.

Melissa's father, Hubert Busekros, said he and his lawyer were offered a compromise this week that they could not accept. The authorities wanted the Busekros's to give up custody of their other five children in order to resolve this situation. Hubert said the authorities are considering doing psychiatric exams on the other five children in order to implicate Hubert and his wife as unfit parents and thereby break up the family.

These actions against this homeschool family are an outrage. There are approximately 40 other cases pending in Germany. Many homeschool families have fled to Austria or another nearby country where homeschooling is legal. The German government is persecuting these innocent families without mercy. The German Embassy has indicated they cannot allow "parallel cultures." Christian homeschooling is a "parallel culture" that Germany does not want.

REQUESTED ACTION

1. Please continue to call or email the German Embassy and give them this message:

"Over 40 innocent homeschool families have been prosecuted, fined, and in some instances, had their children removed to state custody. This is an outrage. Many homeschool families are fleeing Germany to nearby European countries where homeschooling is legal. The most incredible violation of human rights is the Busekros family, whose child was put into a psychiatric ward and then removed to an undisclosed location, all for the crime of homeschooling. Germany will not long be known as a free nation if it suppresses the right to choose homeschooling."

The German Embassy in Canada can be contacted at:

German Embassy

1 Waverley Street

Ottawa, ON, K2P 0T8

Tel.: 613-232-1101 Fax: 613-594-9330

Email: germanembassyottawa@on.aibn.com

The embassy can be emailed from its website: http://www.ottawa.diplo.de/Vertretung/ottawa/en/Kontakt.html

2. The Minister of Justice in Bavaria can be given the same message:

Beate Merk

Prielmayerstr. 7

80335 Munchen

Tel. +49 89 5597 1799

Fax +49 89 5597 3580

Email: beate.merk@stmj.bayern.de

3. If you wish, you can also send letters to Melissa and the rest of the Busekros family. Melissa's parents have said they will try to get the letters and cards to Melissa. Their home address is:

Schallershofer Strasse 72

91056 Erlangen

Deutschland

4. Pray for the German situation. Only God can change the situation for homeschoolers in Germany. Attempts by German homeschoolers to organize or to change the laws through court continue to be lost, but with God all things are possible. We ask that you cry out for the German homeschool families.

Thank you for standing with these families and taking a moment to assist them. Please continue to keep Germany in your prayers.

Sincerely,

Paul D. Faris LL.B.

Executive Director and Legal Counsel