German Homeschoolers Regain Custody of Children, Vow To Stay and Fight for Freedom

Thaddeus Baklinski : Sep 2, 2014
LifeSiteNews.com

"Their fight is our fight... We must stand up to this kind of persecution where it occurs or we risk seeing own freedom weakened." –Michael Farris, HSLDA Chairman

One year to the day since a team of 20 social workers, police officers, and special agents stormed a homeschooling family's residence near Darmstadt, Germany, and forcibly removed all four of the family's children, aged 7 to 14, a state appeals court has returned custody of the children to their parents.

The reason given for the removal was that parents Dirk and Petra Wunderlich continued to homeschool their children in defiance of a German ban on home education.

The children were returned three weeks after being taken, following an international outcry spearheaded by the Home School Legal Defense Association.

However, a lower court imposed the condition on the parents that their children were required to attend state schools in order for them to be released, and took legal custody of the children in order to prevent the family from leaving the country.

In a decision that was still highly critical of the parents and of homeschooling, the appeals court decided that the action of the lower court in putting the children in the custody of the state was "disproportional" and ordered complete custody returned to the parents, according to a statement by the HSLDA.

The Wunderlichs, who began homeschooling again when the court signaled it would rule this way, said they were very pleased with the result, but noted that the court's harsh words about homeschooling indicated that their battle was far from over.

"We have won custody and we are glad about that," Dirk said.

"The court said that taking our children away was not proportionate—only because the authorities should apply very high fines and criminal prosecution instead. But this decision upholds the absurd idea that homeschooling is child endangerment and an abuse of parental authority."

The Wunderlichs are now free to emigrate to another country where homeschooling is legal, if they choose, but they said they intend to remain in Germany and work for educational freedom.