Posted in Homeschooling
OreoSouza and Janne have some information about the Creighton family that every homeschooling family needs to read. While we don't have all the details, here's the brief rundown: One child's allegation of abuse has brought California's Child Protective Services to invade a home on March 15th and remove their five youngest children. The legality of their doing so is debatable and HSLDA is involved. The family is devastated.
According to Jonathan Lindvall, "The Creightons were identified by Riverside County as model foster parents, and were chosen to speak for an initiation class of prospective foster parents there." The allegations of child abuse are incongruous, unless you consider discipline like corporal punishment and being sent to their room as abuse.
Yet, as Lindvall writes,
Lindvall is right in his conclusion. Yet even today, we are seeing homeschooling maligned and marginalized by the liberals in state and local governments. As homeschooling families, we need to continue to generate positive public relations. We cannot sit back and bask in the sunshine of the knowledge that more and more people are choosing to homeschool. A movement, even one as popular as homeschooling, can be devastated or eradicated with one or two key legal decisions or poorly-written laws.
What's worse, I believe there is a sense of schadenfreud in California's CPS. A family that was a "model" isn't quite as perfect. It's the same as a person who finds delight in the fact that the most popular girl they know has a scandalous secret. It's the desire to tear down that which challenges your own ideology. They can't believe that a family could have it all together like the Crieghtons do. The fact that they're backward Christians who "homeschool, home-church, and self-medicate" only makes it more delicious to them. CPS has the dirt on this "model" family, so you'd better just watch your step. That video you forgot to return in the '80s will come back to haunt you. Too many families are forced to go through this trauma with no real reason other than what could be a child's ploy for revenge or attention.
For further reading/viewing:
According to Jonathan Lindvall, "The Creightons were identified by Riverside County as model foster parents, and were chosen to speak for an initiation class of prospective foster parents there." The allegations of child abuse are incongruous, unless you consider discipline like corporal punishment and being sent to their room as abuse.
Yet, as Lindvall writes,
One of the social workers defended her actions to the friends and neighbors who had gathered to support the Creightons, saying, They homeschool, they home-church, and they self-medicate! None of these things are illegal, or grounds for removing children.
Lindvall is right in his conclusion. Yet even today, we are seeing homeschooling maligned and marginalized by the liberals in state and local governments. As homeschooling families, we need to continue to generate positive public relations. We cannot sit back and bask in the sunshine of the knowledge that more and more people are choosing to homeschool. A movement, even one as popular as homeschooling, can be devastated or eradicated with one or two key legal decisions or poorly-written laws.
What's worse, I believe there is a sense of schadenfreud in California's CPS. A family that was a "model" isn't quite as perfect. It's the same as a person who finds delight in the fact that the most popular girl they know has a scandalous secret. It's the desire to tear down that which challenges your own ideology. They can't believe that a family could have it all together like the Crieghtons do. The fact that they're backward Christians who "homeschool, home-church, and self-medicate" only makes it more delicious to them. CPS has the dirt on this "model" family, so you'd better just watch your step. That video you forgot to return in the '80s will come back to haunt you. Too many families are forced to go through this trauma with no real reason other than what could be a child's ploy for revenge or attention.
For further reading/viewing:
