‘HOOKY' MOM: I'D DO JAIL

New York Post ^ | 12/16/02 | CARL CAMPANILE

[shhrubbery!]

December 16, 2002 -- EXCLUSIVE

A defiant Brooklyn mom has kept her 14-year-old daughter out of her high school the entire year because she considers it too dangerous - and she's willing to go to jail over the matter.

[snip]

...Chancellor Joel Klein's office said they would immediately file a child-abuse complaint against the parents with the city's Administration for Children's Services.

entire article here

[HairOfTheDog]

Sounds like she is doing some home schooling, but she better get organized. I highly doubt they have jail space for this woman in New York, but she is risking her family by not getting it together.

[shhrubbery!]

Right, doesn't sound like the ideal homeschooling situation with the girl watching Maury Povich and Regis Philbin, presumably while the mother's working outside the home. But hey, public schooled kids watch garbage TV too. The girl is still better off than she would be at 'Hell High' Lafayette.

In any case, the schools chancellor has no business filing child abuse charges against the mother. I'll bet he isn't filing charges against the parents of the 'students' who beat other students and burn trash in the hallways of Lafayette.

[Lil'freeper]

Interesting that the end of the article alludes to a law that allows parents to transfer their children out of dangerous schools, but that the definition of "dangerous" is still up in the air. The question of who decides what is dangerous is going to be interesting, especially if it is up to this chancellor fella. Anyone who thinks keeping a child at home is more abusive than forcing them to be in a dangerous school ought not be in a position of "authority".

[aberaussie]

Isn't it interesting that the chancellor considers it child abuse to refuse to send a child into a dangerous school environment?

What do the homeschooling laws require in New York? Surely it should not be too difficult to get set up properly.

[Gigantor]

I grew up across the street from Lafayette, graduated from IS 201, live two blocks from New Utrecht HS.

My older sister graduated from Lafayette (as did NY Met John Franco and Dodger Sandy Koufax) and let me tell you that it was once a fantastic school.

Right now it is the most dangerous HS in New York City, and it has been notorious for 6 or 7 years.

No one does a thing about it. The corruption and neglect is beyond belief.

[shhrubbery!]

What do the homeschooling laws require in New York?

I don't know about NY law, but in New Jersey the laws are (surprisingly) good for homeschoolers. In NJ we don't have to get 'approval' by state or local schoolboards, only affirm that we provide an 'equivalent' education to that supposedly provided by public schools. 'Equivalence' has been interpreted liberally in state court decisions.

Pennsylvania, OTOH, has set up an incredible set of hoops for homeschooling parents to jump through.

[valkyrieanne]

Here is a page on New York's homeschool laws. The mother could have done this at the beginning of the school year and saved herself a lot of grief. There are plenty of correspondence high school programs that would satisfy New York's relatively stringent requirements (like this one from Missouri, which is validly used in every state.)

Notice that there is no requirement that homeschooling take place between 8 AM and 3 PM, so homeschooling a high schooler is not incompatible with a parent working, if the teenager is willing to stay at home & not roam the streets. Mom should also ditch the junk TV and enable it so the girl can watch History Channel, Discover, Learning Channel etc. if she wants a break from the books.

In general, I hate to read articles like this, because it makes those homeschooling for high school look like idiots, which they are generally *not.*

[shhrubbery!]

My older sister graduated from Lafayette (as did NY Met John Franco and Dodger Sandy Koufax) and let me tell you that it was once a fantastic school.

Steve Malzberg talked about this on his Sunday program on WABC radio. He too is a graduate of Lafayette. It was a good school as recently as 1976.

Malzberg interviewed one of Mayor Bloomberg's deputy mayors about the situation. It seems one of the worst problems is Asian students being beaten up by black students. (Btw, Lafayette now offers an AP physics course -- and all the students in that class are Asian.) The deputy mayor insisted this was not a racial or 'bias' problem, despite Malzberg's point that if the race of the perpetrators and victims were reversed, there would be huge scandal.

The deputy mayor's answer to Lafayette's woes was to tell Malzberg was that he, Malzberg, should round up all the celebrity grads (Franco, Koufax etc.) to do a fund-raiser for the school.

[monday]

"It was a good school as recently as 1976."

Recently? Twentysix years ago is hardly recent. That was 2 years before I was born.

[shhrubbery!]

Just mean that 1976 was the year Malzberg graduated. He says it was still a great school then. (John Franco graduated more recently than that, but then, he hasn't weighed in on the issue as far as I know.)

[HumanaeVitae]

"HOOKY' MOM: I'D DO JAIL"

Don't let the inmates get wind of this...

[Coleus]

`

[shhrubbery!]

Update

Commie attorney Ron Kuby of the "Curtis and Kuby show" (WABC radio NYC) -- erstwhile lawyer for Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman of the 1993 WTC bombing -- is now representing Alexandra Hidalgo's mother.

Guess Ron has been trying to rehabilitate himself since 9/11/01.

[Coleus]

Interesting, I guess so.

There are ACLU issues which are pertinent to the republican cause, in this case, school choice and the right to educate your child they way you see fit.