A New Hampshire court issued an order on July 14, 2009 for a 10 year old homeschooler to be enrolled into the local public school. The reason: The homeschooled girl is too “vigorous” in the defense of her Christian beliefs.

This case started off as a revisit to a parental plan for the 10 year old. The mother and father had divorced when the girl was a newborn and mom has homeschooled her from the beginning. She currently attends some public school classes and participates in many extra-curricula activities. The young girl is also well liked by her peers.

During this case, the child was appointed a guardian ad litem who stated that the child was well educated, more than meets the state requirements for education, and even stated that she was intellectually superior to her counterparts. However, the guardian believes that the child is too rigid in her Christian beliefs and needs to be exposed to other religions in order to become a well rounded being. It is also the guardian’s belief that this is necessary so she may choose her faith as a young adult, which may not be Christianity. She feels the child is only reflecting her mothers beliefs and could not possibly have her own set at this age.

Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) allied attorneys have filed motions for the New Hampshire court to reconsider and stay its decision. Senior Legal Counsel Mike Johnson stated, “The New Hampshire Supreme Court itself has specifically declared “Home education is enduring American tradition and right…’” and “There is clearly and without question no legitimate legal basis for the court’s decision, and we trust it will reconsider its conclusion”.

This is the 2nd time in the last few months that a homeschool mother, who is single, has been ordered to put their child back into the government-run schools even though in each case the child was performing above expectations academically and even emotionally. This is something that we, all homeschoolers, will need to keep a close eye on. Since each case was in a different state, it does show how homeschoolers are still looked upon with suspicions and doubt that we can effectively raise well educated, well-rounded, and contributing citizens without the help of the government interfering.

To read the original article, please read http://www.alliancedefensefund.org/news/story.aspx?cid=5050.

For a discussion on this topic and others, please go to our discussion forums at http://forum.homeschool.com/forum/forum_topics.asp?FID=51.