In the News Today…
Indianapolis - The Warren Township school district is gaining national attention after a 13 Investigates report confirmed young students engaging in sexual activity during class time.School officials are refusing to comment publicly, prompting concern and outrage among township parents.
Two days after 13 Investigates uncovered hidden facts about two Raymond Park Middle School students engaging in sexual activity during shop class, Warren Township School administrators still aren't talking.
[…]
Associate School Superintendent Dr. Jeff Swensson confirmed the incident happened almost four months ago in an Industrial Arts lab with the teacher present. He told 13 Investigates another child acted as a "look-out," disputing an insider's claim that as many as ten children may have witnessed the act.
Should it bother us that our first reaction to this is probably, “Yeah, what else is new”? We’re pretty numb to stories like this out of public schools making national headlines. And the following quotes certainly reflect a big part of why we are so numb to middle-schoolers—what are they, 11? 12?—engaging in sex-acts during class with the teacher present:
"This doesn't pose any danger to the other students even if they did see it," Kevin McDowell, the attorney for the Indiana Department of Education.
When asked for claification, McDowell repeated his stance.
"All right, so they may have witnessed this. While this is an activity you certainly don't see in a school and it's something that would be certainly unusual, I don't feel - I don't know where it posed any immediate danger to those children who saw it," McDowell said.
Now, to give Mr. McDowell a little credit, he did at least undermine the manner in which school administrators have handled the situation. I mean, hey—it’s not like a kid was gunning them down during class or anything, so what’s the big deal? They’re middle-schoolers; they’ve already learned about sex and condoms in sex ed. Witnessing something as beautiful as the intimacy between two adolescents is necessary for their social development, right?
Here’s what Honorable Thomas Zampino said:
In this day and age where we seek to protect children from harm and sexual predators, so many children are left unsupervised.
Oh wait…I’m getting my stories confused. That’s what he said about a homeschooler. A completely unrelated story out of New Jersey that many of us homeschoolers have been keeping an eye on:
Honorable Thomas Zampino of the Family Division of the New Jersey Superior Court has ordered penal charges against a home-schooling mother of seven. According to a report by Matt Bowman on the website constitutionallycorrect.com, the mother's supposed infraction is home-schooling her children without supervision from the local school board - a right explicitly upheld in New Jersey law.
According to the court's opinion, Tara Hamilton is the defendant in a suit brought against her by her recently estranged husband, Stephen Hamilton. Stephen brought the suit in an attempt to force Tara to enroll their school-age children, aged 12 to 4 years, in parochial school because he believes that they are not receiving an adequate education while being home-schooled. All seven children currently reside with Tara.
I hope Judge Zampino’s opinion of homeschoolers isn’t widespread, because if it is and if we keep letting these judges play legislator (without votes, of course), we’ll be looking a lot like Germany. He went on:
In today's threatening world, where we seek to protect children from abuse, not just physical, but also educational abuse, how can we not monitor the educational welfare of all our children?"
Hence nearly every homeschooler’s decision to keep their kids out of your schools, Your Honor.
posted by Anonymous | 12:19 PM
7 Comments:
'Tis a bit disturbing, isn't it?
What a great socialization we offer our children. What a great set of common values to hold our nation together.
See what you are depriving your children of, HM? When are you going to get a clue?
Just kidding!
I'm surprised they didn't justify it in the name of some sick sex ed class.
Regarding the NJ story it makes me thankful we live in homeschool friendly VA.
Yes I know...my poor boys will be so socially deprived because--God willing!--they will make it through their teen years without ever "bagging a babe". (Can you name that movie? I think the line is, "You might find this hard to believe, but...I've never bagged a babe.")
One thing that really disturbs me about the NJ story is the fact that homeschooling laws there are so incredibly friendly--probably some of the best nationwide--and this apparently shocks the you-know-what out of Judge Zampino. The case is about a divorced couple battling over the eduction of their children, not the judge's beef with the homeschooling laws in his state.
And yes, Dana...disturbing, indeed.
That's easy!!!
Sixteen Candles--Farmer Ted.
Gimme a hard one next time, OK?
Seriously, though, this sounds blatantly personal for this judge or he just wants to toast some homeschoolers for the sake of media attention.
Alright, Tony--gold star for you. I thought I'd start out easy...chances are they won't be that easy from now on! This is fun...think I'll start throwing movie quotes in my comments more often. It keeps me from getting too depressed when reading stories like the two mentioned in this post.
And this judge...man, he freaks me out. I still can't get over what he all wrote in his ruling...
Chilling. The precedent set by any judge is just what anti-homeschoolers want to add gasoline to the fires of their position when it comes to children being homeschooled. I know a few grandparents who might lodge suits if this comes to the bright light of day. Where would it stop? If a non-custodial parent can sue and win, then a school system could, too. After all, what would those systems do without the headcount to get more in federal funding?
Great post, headmistress. selahV
Thanks for stopping by, SelahV--I know we both enjoy keeping up with Tony over at the RP.
I understand the suit brought about by the dad in this case. That doesn't mean I agree with it...it's sad and depressing that these two parents can't work it out themselves, but that is what the family courts are there for--a necessary evil, I suppose, in today's times. I have a hard time imagining that anything would ever go as far as schools suing to get kids back in, though, but you never know these days. The problem is that we have a system that knows better how our children are to be raised than the parents. Sadly, too many dead-beat parents have given many of us well-intentioned folks reason to believe the system does in fact knows better than they do. And now in doing so, we keep redrawing the line as to what is acceptable and what isn't when it comes to bringing up our kids. I don't see any reversal in this trend.
Thanks again for stopping by!
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