(Chuck Muth) – I haven’t been this ticked off in a long time.
According to a January 4th report on WRGB-TV 6 in Albany, NY, Richard and Margie Cressy were “arrested on child endangerment charges” after authorities received an anonymous tip. And just what heinous abuse were the Cressys inflicting on their four children, ages 8 to 14?
You’re not going to believe it.
These dastardly, diabolical monsters had….dared to home-school their children for seven years rather than out-source their responsibility to a government-run education camp without getting the permission of government authorities!
Richard Hoffman, Superintendent of the Fonda-Fultonville Central School District, admitted that “there was education going on,” but maintained that the Cressys “didn’t fulfill their legal responsibility to file with the school district to be home-schooled.”
That’s right. Richard and Margie were busted, not for failing to educate their children, but for “failing to register their children with the school district.”
According to the report, “Hoffman said the Cressys have since submitted a home-schooling curriculum, which he has approved.”
HE has approved? Something is seriously, seriously wrong here, folks. Why in the hell do these parents need “permission” from this government bureaucrat to educate their own children? I mean, whose kids are they? Richard Cressy’s….or Richard Hoffman’s?
Think of it another way.
Let’s say Margie Cressy had opted to terminate all four of her pregnancies rather than bring those children into the world. Talk about “child endangerment”! Yet in no way, shape, form or fashion would Margie Cressy be required to register with the government to abort those children, let alone seek the government’s permission.
And yet she was thrown behind bars for failing to fill out some government paperwork seeking permission from the government to take on the responsibility of teaching her OWN kids how to read, write and do arithmetic?
For its part, the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office, which slapped the cuff on the home-schooling parents and hauled their sorry butts off to the hoose-gow, issued a “clarification” on why they busted these fiends rather than, you know, murderers and drug dealers and rapists.
“These arrests were made for not meeting the responsibilities required by the State of New York for home schooling and for the protection of minor children,” the department explained in a written stateme. “It is alleged that the Cressys knowingly did not file the required paperwork with the local school district for seven years…”
Did….not….file….the….required….paperwork.
Pencil-pushing SOB’s.
The Sheriff’s Office added: “If these arrests have raised the awareness that there are specific rules and laws surrounding home-schooling children and even if one child will benefit from that knowledge, regardless of the outcome of this case the investigation may be deemed a success.”
No, it won’t.
This incident will be a tragedy; an outrage, no matter how the government tries to spin it. These parents DID NOTHING WRONG other than fail to fill out some government paperwork that they never should have been required to fill out in the first place. At worst they resisted government authority in an area the government has no business being in the first place.
The only good that could possibly come from this case is if more home-schooling parents, outraged at this ongoing government encroachment on parental prerogatives, stand up and refuse to seek the government’s “permission” or “approval” to provide for their own children’s education by telling these bureaucrats to stick their stinkin’ paperwork where the sun don’t shine.
Indeed, doing so would be in the finest tradition of our Founding Fathers. As Thomas Jefferson once said, “The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive.”
Protecting parental rights from government encroachment is absolutely, positively one of those occasions. And in that spirit, I’ve been home-schooling my own kids for six years now and have never “registered” with any government authority.
In fact, while living in Carson City I made it a point to advise the local school district that I intentionally was NOT filling out their “required” paperwork and invited them to prosecute me. Never heard back from them.
I now hereby extend the same invitation to Walt Rulffes, superintendent of the Clark County School District. You know where to find me, Walt. I’m in the book.
Absolutely ridiculous! Nevada has the same requirement, but just because they aren’t arresting anyone, it doesn’t mean it’s not a violation of parent’s rights. Just having the requirement in place is an affront to freedom.
I wish Nevada had a public leader with the stones to re-invent the educational system…. like, BEFORE they are trying to save their political career.
New York and California both have ridiculous HS laws. I agree with Tim, this should not even be a law. They are children of parents, not children of the government.
As a homeschool parent I don’t appreciate having to get pre approval but I do agree that HS kids should be tested and if they flunk badly they should have to go to Public school. On average HS kids outscore PS, but there are a few backwards people that don’t have an education themselves trying to HS their kids.
The point in having unenforced laws on the books is so they can be used selectively on political opponents. I would argue that there are so many unenforced laws out there that you probably become a felon once a week without knowing it.
THANKS, CHUCK MUTH !!!
While I fully support a parents right to home-school their children, I also believe they should be accounted for in terms of school-aged children living within a district. Basic guidlines should be observed by all who teach our children, whether or not it is in a formal school classroom or family living room. Both ways work. Let the parents decide.
I also say THANKS, CHUCK MUTH!!! Framers of our Constitution warned us…we will have to fight for our freedoms, in order to keep them!!!
The public school system has failed; when it started early in 19th century, Christians had the option to take their kids back, they never took them back. So we now need to do that. Where in Scripture does it say to deliver our kids to an un-Godly institution, where our country’s heritage has been purged from textbooks, where to be politically correct is most important!!! Are we reading God’s Word on a daily basis??? How else can we know the truth??? If we do not know the truth how can we train our kids???
Ted says: “…HS kids should be tested and if they flunk badly they should have to go to Public school.”
What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. If public school kids flunk badly (like they do all the time) they should have to go to home school. NOT.
Government has no business telling parents where they send their kids either way. This country was better-educated before there was tax-supported, compulsory education. The Northwest Ordinance intended (indeed, stated) that kids should all have the OPPORTUNITY to go to school, not be FORCED to go to government education camps.
Ted says: “…HS kids should be tested and if they flunk badly they should have to go to Public school.”
What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. If public school kids flunk badly (like they do all the time) they should have to go to home school. NOT.
Government has no business telling parents where they send their kids either way. This country was better-educated before there was tax-supported, compulsory education. The Northwest Ordinance intended (indeed, stated) that kids should all have the OPPORTUNITY to go to school, not be FORCED to go to government education camps.
WELL, I DO NOT HAVE SCHOOL AGE CHILDREN ANYMORE, MINE ARE GROWN AND THEY HAVE CHILDREN GOING TO PUBLIC SCHOOLS NOW. IT IS A SHAME THAT ALL CHILDREN CANNOT BE HOME SCHOOLED THESE DAYS WITH ALL THE INSTRUCTION IN SEX EDUCATION GOING ON ALREADY AND NOW THEY ARE GOING TO EDUCATE THEM ON HOMO SEXUAL AND BI SEXUAL RELATIONS DOWN TO SHOWING THEM PICTURES AS TO HOW IT IS DONE. AND NOT ONLY THAT, CHILDREN ARE GOING TO BE TAUGHT THAT ABORTION IS A GOOD THING. AFTER TEACHING THEM TO HAVE SEX THEN THEY ARE GOING TO TELL THEM IT IS OK TO GET RID OF THEIR DISCRETIONS BY ABORTION.
MY BELIEF IS THAT THIS SORT OF THING IS A PARENTS PLACE AND RIGHT TO DISCUSS WITH THEIR OWN CHILDREN AND EDUCATE THEM ON BEING CELEBUTE UNTIL MARRIAGE.I SUPPOSE THAT WOULD DEPEND ON A PERSONS FAITH AND RELIGION, BUT IT IS STILL NOT THE GOVERNMENT OR THE SCHOOLS PLACE TO TEACH THIS TO OUR CHILDREN.
1. ALL victimless “crime” laws in this nation need to be revised/and/or thrown out.
2. The entire education system needs to be returned to the States and to the people. The Dept. of Education should be dismantled/defunded. The federal government has NO Cpnstitutional authority to direct the education of American citizens.
3. The sheriff is responsible for PROTECTING citizens from this abuse, not engaging/enforcing it. VOTE ‘EM OUT!
THE TREE OF LIBERTY MUST BE REFRESHED FROM TIME TO TIME WITH THE BLOOD OF PATRIOTS AND TYRANTS
THOMAS JEFFERSON
The American people will try once again to vote out representatives that no longer represent us and vote in new representatives in the hopes that they will hear our voices. How many times must we do this before we get back to constitutional basics and get rid of all the crap that these leaders have put on our backs.
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The American people will try once again to vote out representatives that no longer represent us and vote in new representatives in the hopes that they will hear our voices. How many times must we do this
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Until each one of us takes back full ownership and responsibility for our lives and property. It is as impossible to “vote” yourself free as it is to spend yourself rich. The constitution is a fraud.
Chastising them “MIGHT” have been in order. But arresting them was over the top of logic. I agree… it is incomprehensible one can abort a child w/ no government or even parental involvement, but according to this, one must ask permission to home school their own child. Disproportionate legal burdens placed on those who are not politically correct according to an political establishment concept of lockstep obedience to the state. The education establishment hates home schooling. It endangers union teacher jobs. That kids who are home schooled do better infuriates this establishment.
Why is it a law like this is enforced, but over 80% of illegal aliens entering America, who subsequently break even more laws w/ false documents to obtain jobs, etc. are going unpunished? Illegal aliens who “DO DO jobs Americans would do, if greedy employers paid a reasonable wage.
Let’s not forget that the Comintern of New York has given us such luminaries as Sheldon Silver, Charles Schumer, carpetbagger Hillary the hag and other worthies. Anyone remember Michael the mental midget Bloomberg? It doesn’t seem a stretch therefore that the constabulary arrested this menace to society in a state that never met a socialist cause it didn’t like. New York, as California, is in the vanguard of all the screwball ideas spawned on either Left Coast.
The state has no damn business telling parents how their children are to be educated, especially given the wretched performance of most public schools across the whole wide nation. These buffoons in Congress are and have been pushing the whole nanny state notion on us for much too long. Remember the words of H.L. Mencken (paraphrasing here): “…after carefully considering the problem, I’ve concluded that to solve the problem of education in America we should burn down the universities and hang all the professors.”
Rubicon is right in saying that the teachers’ monolithic union hates home schools, voucher programs, private schools, yeshivas, what have you. Why? Because it doesn’t begin to hold a candle to the high results all of them typically achieve. What is coming out of the teacher training academies is not the best of our intellectual gene pool. Teaching self-esteem, safe sex, social conformity, besotted ideas that we should behave like social insects do not an informed populace make. But if one is of the go- along- to- get- along type with no discernible mental pedigree, then the educrats’ union offers a haven to the untalented.
Throw that stupid sheriff and all his lickspittle lackeys out!!! I am so glad that my wife and I paid the price to put our children through parochial schools. They are doing just fine and know how to think, not what to think.
The Dept. of Education is a worthless waste of taxpayer money. They usurp states’ rights, insist on brainwashing our children, change America’s history by changing text books, and for generations have produced leftist teachers who move as robots to keep dumbing down and making Socialists of our children.
Americans need to take control of our educational system, fire or re-educate the teachers and investigate all books used in classrooms to get rid of leftist, Progressive books that are destroying our Constitution.
We need to eliminate the Dept. of Education, the IRS (flat or fair tax instead), and any other government agency that is proven to cause more harm than good. We also need to enforce our immigration laws and get rid of all politicians that support illegal immigration.
This is absolutely ridiculous! Why in the world does ANYONE ANYWHERE have to be told by this meddling, good-for-nothing government of ours how they should educate THEIR OWN CHILDREN! While I believe children should have an education, on the other hand why are we told they HAVE to get an education? It’s again someone else telling everyone what’s best for them and theirs. It’s every parent’s personal decision how and when to educate their children. Government – BUTT OUT. Get rid of the Department of Education and save us a ton of money AND get nanny bureaucrats out of our personal lives.
It is a little ridiculous, but it makes sense since the government requires compulsory education for all children. So if they are not registered with the government as being schooled at all, then for all they know those children are not learning anything at all.
No, it makes no sense at all. The government has kids in government schools who “are not learning anything at all.” Why do they get a pass? Still the bottom line is this: Who’s kids are they?