Justice In America; Could This Be You?

I home-schooled two girls until they went to college. They are now both seniors. We experienced “harassment” from the “system” in a form that most people think is justified until it happens to them and they suddenly find themselves in a situation that they believe could only happen to bad people.

My abusive (to both me and the girls) ex, after being gone nearly four years and refusing to support the girls, filed for custody. The court gave him custody based on my home schooling and the fact that I seldom took the kids to docs (they were always healthy) and oppose immunization. (The court admitted that I was a “good mother” who “loved the children” and that I was “sole support”. The court refused to admit as evidence the placement tests which showed both girls at 2-5th grade levels in their education at the ages of 5 and 7.) I ended up fleeing with the kids for 7 years.

When I was arrested, I was put in jail for nearly 6 months. My girls (by then 13 and 15) repeatedly called CPS and reported their father for hitting them, throwing them, and otherwise abusing them. CPS and the sheriff’s department refused to do anything. A judge mocked the girls’ “made up stories” and specifically mentioned that their “hokey” education (i.e. their homeschooling) counted for nothing. He refused to let them testify. He also blocked testimony by the girls’ step brothers (my ex’s second wife’s sons) as to my ex-husbands abusive behavior of them which included locking a 10 yr. old in the bathroom for over 3 hours because he didn’t “clean it right.”

A counselor who took the girls’ side was discharged and the court refused to admit her testimony. The girls finally got an attorney to represent them pro bono (God bless him) and began filing their own petitions to the court. This got embarrassing and by then I was out of jail, so I was permitted to “buy” the girls back by paying my ex over $7,000 and signing a paper that said if I ever asked him for child support, I would owe him $20,000. (Child support is mandatory in Washington state. This was an illegal ruling, but I didn't dare try to fight it.)

After I had the girls back, we were reduced to living in a friend’s 16-foot trailer and existing on less than $300/month, while I worked full time to pay my ex and both our attorneys. The state still claimed to be “looking out for the children's best interest.” Uh-huh, tell me another good one.

While the girls were with their dad, he put them in a local private school for a year. Placement tests put them at 2-4 grades above their peers, yet the school insisted the girls couldn’t possibly be at those levels because they were home schooled and had “primitive” social skills. This, in spite of the fact that my older daughter took the lead role in a drama class play and won numerous academic/citizen awards that year. My younger daughter won second place (a HS senior won first place) for school fundraising (done by going house to house with her “primitive” social skills.)

Finally, a few teachers insisted on allowing each of them to do the work of the next grade. The school administered a state-sponsored basic English grammar test to my daughter’s 10th grade class. Out of a class of about 25,(mostly private school-educated kids), my daughter was the only one to *pass*. She scored 90%. Every other child in that class failed the basic English grammar test. A second administration of the same test yielded one more passing score (80%) from a doctor's daughter. All other kids continued to fail through 3 more administrations of the same test. The school refused to recognize my daughter’s accomplishment with the school assembly announcement that usually accompanied such feats.

My younger daughter did 2 years of class work so she could graduate from 8th grade (her placement scores had put her in 9-10th grades). Two weeks before the end of school, the principal informed her that she needed to complete an entire year of 8th grade science before she could graduate. She tested it out through one of the supportive teachers.

The school administration then informed her that she would still not be allowed to graduate or go on the 8th grade class trip. She threatened to withdraw her fundraising money (through a legal technicality in the company contract she could have done this) if they did not allow her to go on the trip and graduate. So they allowed her to graduate.

She finished 2 years in one with a 3.44 GPA and the tremendous stress of the legal and school politics. The 8th grade class valedictorian finished 1 year with a 3.45 GPA. She was given all sorts of recognition and awards while my daughter was not even mentioned. My daughter’s name was left off the graduation program. Both girls’ names and pictures were “accidentally” left out of the school year book.

To escape the ongoing harassment from the court and my ex-husband regarding their homeschooling, both girls took the GED and started college at ages 15 and 16. They maintain 3.5 and 3.89 GPAs, and the older one has a full-tuition scholarship. Yet, officially (per court records) my girls are “poorly socialized” and “behind their peers,” academically.

This is long, but I'm not telling even the half of the story. My ex stalked me, ignored court restraining orders, on and on and on. The CPS/police/sheriff/courts all looked the other way.

Thank God it’s over now. The system is here to perpetuate itself, and woe be to those of us who oppose it.

Name withheld due to harassment by courts, law enforcement and ex-husband. If you would like to contact this individual, please e-mail me and I will pass it on to her.

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