Department of Social Services officials have indefinitely postponed a court hearing addressing whether or not two Massachusetts teen-agers will remain in the custody of their parents after a standoff at their home where they refused to take a mandated assessment test, reports the MetroWest Daily News.
As WorldNetDaily reported, George and Nyssa Bryant, 15 and 13, respectively, have consistently refused to take the test, even after being ordered to do so by DSS officials who now have legal custody of the children. The teens’ parents, George Sr. and Kim Bryant, have been battling with the Waltham, Mass., Public Schools for six years, asserting all along they have the authority to direct the education of their children, not the local school district.
A several hours’ standoff at the Bryant home on Thursday included the presence of four law-enforcement officers and social worker Susan Etscovitz, who has threatened to remove the children from the home. Though the government has legal custody of George Jr. and Nyssa, their parents still have physical custody.
“We have legal custody of the children and we will do with them as we see fit,” Etscovitz told the Bryants, according to the Daily News. “They are minors and they do what we tell them to do.”
The children’s mother explained the court delay.
“We were told that this would be heard [Friday]. We were told [Thursday] that we must show up. Several hours later we received a note in our door from DSS saying that it will be discussed at a later time,” Kim Bryant told the paper. “This is just another day that we sit and wait and hope that nothing happens.”
In Massachusetts, each local school district has latitude to develop its own homeschooling requirements. Similar policies exist only in Rhode Island and Utah. In Waltham, regulations include a requirement that parents file educational plans and develop a grading system for their home-educated children. The Bryants refused to do so and subsequently were ruled unfit parents.
The policy also says homeschoolers will be subject to periodic standardized testing “to ensure educational progress and the attainment of minimum standards.”
Scott Somerville, the staff attorney with the Home School Legal Defense Association that handles Massachusetts, called Massachusetts’ homeschool law “totalitarian.”
“Massachusetts is a barbaric [state] for homeschoolers,” he told WorldNetDaily, adding that the Bryants’ case is “very important to us.”
Somerville wouldn’t say specifically what HSLDA had done or was doing in this case. An article written by Somerville and response from Kim Bryant, dating back to 2000, suggests some level of disagreement between the organization and the family.
Somerville mentioned a case in Massachusetts decided in an appeals court last month in which a single mother was victorious over DSS in a dispute over legal custody of her 17-year-old daughter. Like the Bryant children, the DSS custody was to expire on the girl’s 16th birthday. Because the government didn’t like the education she was receiving and claimed she was truant, however, it attempted to continue custody of the teen beyond that point. The judge ruled that the mother and not the government now has custody of the girl since schooling is not mandatory beyond a student’s 16th birthday.
George Bryant Sr. emphasized to the Daily News the atypical nature of his children’s education.
“We do not have our children sit at a desk, in front of a chalkboard in the basement,” he said. “There is a lot of hands-on activities. There are a lot of trips throughout the region to explore various topics.”
“I really don’t understand how they could say that we had to show up in court [Friday] and then cancel it,” Nyssa told the paper. “They said if we didn’t show up [Friday] then there would be consequences.”
Nyssa’s father remains resolute in his stance, despite the threats from DSS that the agency may remove his kids from their home.
“Private school students do not take standardized tests. Why should our children be subjected to this, against their will?” he asked. “Show me the law that says our children need to take these tests, and they will comply.”
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