U.S. Judge Grants Asylum for Homeschooling Family
A German homeschooling family is safe on United States soil now that a federal judge has granted them political asylum. Immigration judge Lawrence O. Burman announced his decision on Tuesday in Memphis, Tennessee, according to a press release issued by the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA). The family applied for political asylum because the government of Germany would not let them homeschool their children.
"We can't expect every country to follow our constitution," said Judge Burman. "The world might be a better place if it did. However, the rights being violated here are basic human rights that no country has a right to violate." Burman continued, "Homeschoolers are a particular social group that the German government is trying to suppress. This family has a well-founded fear of persecution." He called such persecution "repellent to everything we believe as Americans."
In 2008, Uwe Romeike and his wife, Hannelore, fled with their five children from Bissingen, Germany, where public school attendance is mandatory. Two years before the couple had decided to educate their children at home for religious and conscientious reasons. They received repeated threats from school and government officials until armed police officers, without written orders, forcibly removed the children from their home and escorted them to the government school. Soon afterward, Mr. and Mrs. Romeike managed to have their children excused from attending school based on a doctor's finding that the situation caused "undue stress with psychosomatic consequences." It was then the government began leveling fines on the family which in the span of 16 months totaled more than € 12,200 (about $17,850) with threats the authorities would confiscate their property if they did not pay. The Romeikes appealed to German courts, but their appeals were denied. The government began proceedings take their home, so the family fled to Morristown, Tennessee, where they have lived since August of 2008.
"We are so grateful to the judge for his ruling," said Mr. Romeike, who added, "We know many people, especially other German homeschoolers, have been praying for us. Their prayers and ours have been answered. We greatly appreciate the freedom to homeschool we now have in America and will be building our new life here." According to The Guardian, some of the Romeikes' objections to the German public school curriculum were sex education and exposure to anti-Christian religions and symbols.
-----
By the way, homeschooling has been consistently under attack by the liberal left here in the United States.
We must also remember that the German laws against homeschooling in Germany were put into place by Adolf Hitler.
-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
No comments:
Post a Comment