German Authorities remove home educated children from their families

GERMAN authorities use Nazi era laws to remove home-schooled children from their families.
Two families have escaped to the UK to prevent German Youth Courts from removing their children and forcing them into foster care, solely because they home educate.
41-year-old Klaus Landahl and his family fled Schwarzwald, Germany in January after being told that they were no longer aloud to have custody of their children.
British born Jonathan Skeet and his family also escaped Germany in October after the authorities froze and removed money from their bank accounts and confiscated their car.
Mr Skeet said that his family were blackmailed, scared and threatened with the loss of their children in an attempt to force them to take their children to school.
“It’s black mail and it’s very unpleasant,” said Mr Skeet who worked with adults with learning difficulties in Lüdenscheid, Germany.
“It was crippling and it left us feeling very helpless.
“When we lived in Germany we wanted to live a very inconspicuous and quiet life but instead we ended up with direct confrontation from a very powerful state.”
Speaking through a translator residential home worker Klaus Landahl explained how his family were forced to leave their home, their friends and their belongings and come to England where they can educate their children legally and without fear.
“It really feels like persecution.” He said.
“For our existence to be threatened and to have to leave and go to a different country.
“We had to get to safety to protect our family.
“We can never go back, if we do our children will be removed, as the German government says that they are property of the state now.”
Mr Skeet believes that the German laws, which enforce compulsory school education, are creating hundreds of refugees.
“Many people have become refugees and I don’t think it’s an over statement to say that.” He said.
“A refugee is someone who has been forced to leave their homeland because their very existence is threatened.”
“They are not going to be shot or killed but when the police can just come and take away your children it is a threat to your existence.”
Both the Landahl and the Skeet families now live on the Isle of White surrounded by a large home education network.
An approximate 400 families illegally home educate their children in Germany, living with the fear that the authorities could remove their children, by force and without warning.
Stephanie and Jan Edel run Schulbildung in Familieninitiative, a German organisation, which aims to give information and support to families who home-school in Germany.
Mrs Edel explained that in 2007 approximately 78 home-school children escaped Germany with their parents.
But she said it may be hundreds more, as a large majority live underground and in secret within Germany.
“It is very dangerous to home educate here.” She said.
“Home educators in Germany are really being persecuted they have to learn to expect anything and have to be ready to leave overnight.”
“First the government try and financially ruin you forcing you to give up or to leave the country and then they can just take your children away.
“So either you hide or you leave.” She said.
Mrs Edel explained that families choose to home educate because the German education system is very selective and does not cater for every child.
Parents are forced to send their children to the school in their district and they cannot choose where their children go to school, nor what type of school they can go to.
“The children who suffer the most are disabled children and children with very high intelligence.” Mrs Edel said.
“Some children who are physically disabled are sent to special schools for those with learning difficulties, despite the fact that they may by very intelligent.
“Highly intelligent children are not aloud to develop their abilities, the government treats them all the same as each other.”
The UN sent a special rapporteur, professor Muñoz, to asses German’s education system in 2006.
Professor Muñoz reported that necessary measures should be adopted to uphold a parent’s right to home educate where necessary and appropriate, bearing in mind the best interests of the child.
But this recommendation was ignored by German authorities and, according to the Schulbildung in Familieninitiative, was not even reported in the German press.
One of the most shocking examples of the German government’s treatment of home-schooled families was the removal of 15-year-old Melissa Busekros from her family in 2007.
Melissa’s mother, Gundrun Busekros broke down as described how over 15 policemen forcibly took Melissa from her home to a psychiatric unit for psychological tests.
“I couldn’t do anything to protect her, I was angry and afraid.” She said.
“It was terrible, I couldn’t concentrate, it was like a nightmare, I couldn’t sleep and I couldn’t eat.”
After refusing to be tested Melissa was placed in a foster home in a location unknown to her or her family.
Months later, Melissa escaped on her 16 birthday and with help from the German and international media, the German authorities have now left the family alone.
Melissa said, “each day when I ride my bicycle and I go through the woods and the valleys and breath in the fresh air, I feel so happy that I am now free.
“When you are locked up in a room with only white walls it feels so special when you are finally free.”
Mrs. Busekros said that the experience has opened her eyes to the powers of the German government.
“The system here is like the mafia and everyone depends on each other.
“All of the supposed independent experts are paid by the government so they say what the social workers tell them to say in court.”

Published in the Observer on Sunday February 24 2008

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2008/feb/24/schools.uk