Homeschooling, The Cops, Daytime Incarceration
July 6, 2008 by admin
Filed under Happy Homeschooler
Last Wednesday, I dropped my boys off at a local outdoor, free, county provided skatepark.
Not that it should matter, but they had both done a bunch of work for the week already. We have Wednesday morning off from “other kids” (I homeschool 2 kids in addition to my own for my income). They had Spanish class scheduled for later that day.
I get a call from my oldest that my youngest “landed on his face”. My oldest evaluates “It’s bad enough to come home but not bad enough to go to the hospital”.
I arrive to see my 2 boys engaged in conversation with 2 police officers (the park is adjacent to a police station). The Officers are not there because of the injury. They are there because “someone called in” that 2 boys were “not in school” and at the skatepark.
That was irritating enough, but one of the Officers then went on to say “I’m not sure, but I think homeschooled children need to be home during school hours.”
In my best Homeschooler for Political and Other Reasons Voice, I said “Officer _________, I *am* sure. You’ll need to check your ordinances because that assumption is incorrect”.
They wanted me to stay so that another Officer could arrive and take information to log the injury. Um, no? Kids get injured and into their parents vehicle all the time at that park without an incident report. I was not staying and making us late for Spanish.
On the way to get popsicles (my method of nursing for lip injuries), I called the Texas Homeschool Coalition, “just in case”. Officer __________ had called my home for “just a report” by the time I got home 20 minutes later. I did call him back. He asked if I “knew my driver’s license number”.
No.
“Do you have it handy?”
“Yes”
“Um, will you give it to me?”
“No.”
“It’s only a report for our log”
“If it’s only a report, my dl# won’t be needed”.
Isn’t there a *crime* they can be investigating?
Well done, Its only when people respond properly to the police that we don’t feed this growing police state we live in. Just because someone complains doesn’t make something a crime nor does it justify a report. I’ll bet they never asked the person who made the call for their information, or it was just the police that saw two kids and made up the complaint.
Again, well done.
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good luck
hi
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good luck
hi
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good luck
Good for you! That’s awesome. I havent had people question my 6 yr old not being “in school” yet but I have had family and others let my kids know what they are “missiing out on” not being in public school….like my mil said you could eat lunch there if you went to school. ummm ewww because everyone just loves public school lunch lol!
Handled perfectly! I homeschooled 10 years ago, and started afterschooling when homeschooling was illegal - unless you had a teaching certificate. The line on *missing out* is an old and tired one, and what most people do not realize is that many homeschool students have so much socialization that you have to decline. Our society believes that a child need only be with other children their own age to be properly socialized, to which I usually respond, are all the workers at your job the same age? Oh as my kids could tell you I could go on for hours about homeschooling…. I will cut this short before I do. ****Everyone must stand up for their rights in this society or risk losing them permanently****
Wow. Great response to the cops. You handled it very well. It certainly stands to reason that they are being paid to catch criminals, and not bother parents and kids simply because they’re not used to something. Way to stand up for your rights.