German Officials Isolate Homeschool Girl in Mental Hospital
February 8, 2007
I’ve been told that letters have been flooding in from around the world for 15 year old Melissa Busekros, but that German officials are not letting her see them.
Last week in Erlangen, near Nuremberg, police officers and social workers staged a morning SWAT-style raid on the residence of the Busekros, a home school family, and forcibly took their daughter to a psychiatric evaluation and some sort of academic testing. They decided she suffered from “school phobia” and was developmentally delayed. (The girl did fall behind in two subjects in the German State School before she was home schooled.) A judge, basing her decision on this report, gave custody of the child to the state and the girl was placed in a psychiatric hospital.
Click here for the entire account, written by the German Home School Association.
A court hearing is scheduled for Friday on whether to throw out the judge’s order granting custody of Melissa to the state.
The father, Hubert Busekros, visited Melissa at the mental hospital this week and says that a huge number of letters expressing support for Melissa and her family have arrived at the hospital, but that officials are not letting her see them.
There are photographs of Melissa and an interview with her father (in German) here.
In my experience as a journalist who has covered homeschoolers in Germany, most German officials think home schooling is child abuse or neglect. Even many “regular” Germans are appalled at the concept. This view is made even stranger by the fact that many young children in German public schools are put through a graphic sex education curriculum and new age activities that some would call witchcraft. And I’m told there is usually not an opt-out provision.
Click here, to watch my piece from last year on home schooling in Germany. Or, go to the CBN.com media center and enter the word "homeschoolers" in the search box.
Hurd ON THE WEB Main Page >>
A caring friend will be there to pray with you in your time of need.
