AB 111: A Threat to California Families and Homeschoolers

California Homeschool Network ^ | 5/7/03 | CHN Board of Trustees and Legislation Monitoring Committee

[Carry_Okie]

Dear Member of California Homeschool Network,

It is time for action! AB 111 is now on the floor of the Assembly and will be voted on soon. CHN's Legislation Monitoring Committee feels that this bill, introduced by Assemblywoman Corbett and called "Child abuse: mental suffering," is dangerous to families. It attempts to define emotional abuse of a child in order to make prosecution easier, but the definition is still vague and subjective. CHN's specific objections are listed later in this e-mail. CHN's request of the author for an amendment was rejected. CHN also sent letters of opposition to each of the committees (Judiciary and Public Safety) that heard this bill, but both passed it.

Current law already provides for the prosecution of unjustifiable mental abuse against a child, and for courts to consider any history of abuse when determining custody of a child. This bill does not add anything positive, but does add language that is harmful to families.

Please write, fax, or telephone your assemblymember to voice your opposition to AB 111. (E-mails are easily ignored.) You can find your assemblymember's name and contact information by entering your ZIP code at http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/yourleg.html. (Your telephone book might also list legislative information.) To read the full text of this bill, go to http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/bilinfo.html, set HOUSE = ASSEMBLY and enter "111" for the bill number, then click SEARCH or press enter. A sample letter follows:

Your name and address

Date

The Honorable (first and last name)

Assembly, State Capitol

Room (number)

Sacramento, CA 95814

RE: Oppose AB 111

Dear Assemblymember (last name),

Please oppose AB 111.

(You do not need to write any more than this, but you are welcome to add your reasons. Please consider describing yourself as a concerned parent rather than a homeschooler, although you are certainly free to write whatever you desire. Please put ideas into your own words, rather than copying verbatim from this alert.)

Thank you for considering my views, and I look forward to seeing how you vote.

Sincerely,

(signature, followed by your name printed or typed and full address)

CHN's specific arguments against this bill are as follows:

1) The most objectionable language in AB 111 is in the legislative findings: "Emotional abuse can include humiliating or ridiculing a child, rejecting or isolating a child, or causing the child to witness domestic violence." These are all vague, subjective charges, which could be used against just about any parent. (Is it abusively isolating a child to send him to his room for a short time to cool off after misbehaving?) The phrase "isolating a child" has been wrongfully used against homeschoolers in the past.

2) This bill also attempts to define what evidence may be used to prove mental suffering in a child custody case. Homeschooling is often a bone of contention in custody cases, and one parent could ostensibly get someone to testify in court that homeschooling has caused "an injury to the intellectual or psychological capacity or the emotional condition of a child," even though it would be possible to get other professionals to testify to the contrary. Such "evidence" would be a matter of opinion.

3) The final section of the bill encourages local law enforcement agencies to collaborate with mental health professionals so that these people may show up at the same time as police officers and immediately assess the psychological needs of families where children have been exposed to "any...traumatic event." This seriously violates parental rights. An irate neighbor, ex-spouse, or family member could call the police and say a child is being traumatized because he can't go to public school. Not only would the police show up, but also a mental health professional would immediately separate the child to assess the psychological needs of the family, when the parents have not even been charged with a crime.

from the CHN Board of Trustees and Legislation Monitoring Committee

[I_Love_My_Husband]

Agree with you about Bill. The conservatives should have come out in FORCE and voted for him. What were they thinking? Now we're STUCK! We could have changed history and stopped the state from hemorraging and higher taxes for illegals. Now we're in a huge horrible stew in so many ways. The only thing good is that the Dems do have to make some cuts and the Repubs are gaining because of this. BS only lost by 16,000 votes. Heck, if ALL the Repubs in SF alone voted we could have won! Unfortunately THEY stayed home.

[Carry_Okie]

Agreed, but let's keep our focus and get those letters out. This bill is a threat to every California family.

[nickcarraway]

BUMP

[Carry_Okie]

This bill threatens every California family.

[homeschool mama]

grrrrr.

Letter sent.

Ray Haynes is in the Assembly...sent his office a letter as well. He's one of the *good guys*.

[Weimdog]

I have to disagree on the Bill Simon thing.

Bill Simon would have been a "lame duck" from the get-go. With the Dems holding an overwhelming majority in both houses and all elected offices, Simon would have accomplished little or nothing.

In my opinion, the citizens of California are like alchoholics, they need to hit bottom before they realize the real trouble they're in.

[No Dems 2004]

As usual, the California legislature is irking conservative America with its hell-bent idiocy. I was home-schooled as a kid (partially in California) and I'm also concerned that this could affect a parent's ability to discipline a child -- I'm not talking about domestic abuse, but wisely meted corporal punishment.

As a former California resident, I also pray for change in the nation's most populous state. The home of Ronald Reagan has become the home of Barbara Boxer. It's abysmally pathetic.

I do, however, feel that there is hope for the Golden State. The CA GOP is still alive -- a far cry from the Massachusetts GOP which, while it can elect liberal governors from its party, has virtually no representation in the state. Let's pray that common sense will prevail in California.

[Calpernia]

Don't see much of a problem here. It includes language that could be countered for defense of Homeschooling: "Emotional abuse can include humiliating or ridiculing a child, rejecting or isolating a child"

Children are always being emotional and physically abused by classmates in school. The language is a double edged sword ;)

[Carry_Okie]

Children are always being emotional and physically abused by classmates in school. The language is a double edged sword ;)

Not when it's in the hands of CPS.

You clearly don't understand how the "Child Protection" system works. They go after white, middle-class Christian homeschoolers BECAUSE the kids are good and the parents don't have the money to mount a stiff legal defense. The agency gets an extra $40,000 for an early adoption. Such kids are easy to move.

OTOH minority kids from drug infested areas don't get the help they truly need because they are hard to adopt and stay in the system for so long. It is a "Child Protection_ industry gone mad, and prone to evil. Best you learn more about it.

They can come into your house with no probable cause, no proof, and no warrant. If they see anything they can interpret as "evidence of abuse" they must make an arrest and take the kid or face losing their jobs. Such "evidence" has even been the existence of a Bible on the table.

This legislation broadens that definition as to what constitutes "evidence of abuse" even further. For you to discount it so, even sarcastically is not constructive.

[nickcarraway]

Hey, did Governor Davis also pass a law abolishing spring??

[Carry_Okie]

I don't know, but if my neighbor can't disc his field soon, I'm going to be hit with a weed infestation the like of which I've never seen. Meanwhile more weeds just keep germinating every time it rains.

It sucks this year, bigtime, even if we really needed the rain.

[G Larry]

>Advanced math makes learning hard science a snap.<

This can NOT be allowed!

People understanding "hard science" will undermine too many liberal causes.
</sarcasm>

[Calpernia]

>>>For you to discount it so, even sarcastically is not constructive

Wasn't being sarcastic. Never heard of any of the incidents you mentioned.

[MotherofTen]

First off, I agree with your spirit. :)

And I consider the CPS the 'New Gestapo". I have a very healthy fear of ever getting on their radar.

>> They can come into your house with no probable cause, no proof, and no warrant.>>

But this is not true. CPS had to settle with the Calabretta family in California for thousands of dollars for doing that. HSLDA counsels that you NEVER let them in your house unless they have a warrant. If you are a homeschooler, you are wise to belong to HSLDA, and in the event of CPS coming to your door, call HSLDA and hand the phone to the social worker.

There are other strategies to protect yourself in case of contact, such as preempting them by having your private physician examine your children.

However with the subjectivity of the above bill, none of us are safe. The liberals no longer see education as the focus of the public school, but socialization. Which of course translates into being indoctrinated with liberal/Marxist ideology.

Thank God we only have two more years of military duty here, and then we can return to the South, the land of the Bible Belt.

[Diamond]

They can come into your house with no probable cause, no proof, and no warrant.

I appreciate all your comments on this thread, but just out of curiosity, do they come with swat teams and break down your front door? How do they get into your house?

Cordially,

[Carry_Okie]

But this is not true. CPS had to settle with the Calabretta family in California for thousands of dollars for doing that. HSLDA counsels that you NEVER let them in your house unless they have a warrant. If you are a homeschooler, you are wise to belong to HSLDA, and in the event of CPS coming to your door, call HSLDA and hand the phone to the social worker.

The average family in California does not have HSLDA available to help (we're members), lacks the instruction on how to keep them out, and it didn't stop CPS from trying it anyway, did it?.

They can do it and will, whether it's legal or not (legality has seldom stopped CPS in the past whenever they choose to trump something up). We are stuck with fighting every case and are faced with a disproportionate burden of proof considering the severity of the charges, the depth of their financial resources with which to pony phony "expurts," and the flimsy basis for their claims.

[Boot Hill]

Wish it weren't true, but...

You don't have to be exactly prescient about the direction of California politics to see that the fight against AB111 is, at best, a holding action, designed to postpone the inevitable, which is the complete prohibition of homeschooling in California. Therefore, I have three questions for you.

First, do you foresee completing your children's homeschooling education prior to the shutdown of homeschooling?

And second, from the homeschoolers you know, is their response to a shutdown of the homeschool system, likely to include a degree of violent reaction?

And third, do homeschoolers view the right to homeschool their children on the same moral plane as the RKBA?

--Boot Hill

[madfly]

ping

[Carry_Okie]

I appreciate all your comments on this thread, but just out of curiosity, do they come with swat teams and break down your front door? How do they get into your house?

I know; it sounds far-fetched. My sources for these comments are personal: A former Santa Cruz Sentinel reporter, who broke the story about the 40 grand incentive system, explained to me how that worked. My boss at a local (now defunct) electronics firm was a part-time police officer (IIRC he was a captain on the Campbell PD weekends & holidays). It was he who explained to me the threat the officer faces if an arrest is NOT made, even when the evidence is really flimsy. You can decide whether my statements are reliable upon those bases.

CPS may appear by themselves or with an LEO. A "complaint" can come on the basis of a call from a neighbor, a claim of truancy by a school district, signs of "educational neglect" (kids playing during school hours), a look through the window for religious materials... It's rare, but it's happened.

I should have probably said "legitimate probable cause," and apologize for the confusion. I'm more than a bit touchy about the "child-welfare" system having been mucked with by it as a kid (parents' multiple divorces and custody battles).

Until this year, if one was a homeschooler, if an officer came to the house one needed only produce an attandance sheet and a report card. Since the famous memo to Ms. Eastin last year, things are more tenuous. For the last several years we have chosen to buy some administrative cover by registering as students at a local private Christian school that has a homestudy program. They verify the quality of our academic work, the suitability of the home environment (a visit), and conduct annual testing under the aegis of ACSI (not the STAR test). If school officials or the sheriff ever came here, we would call the school and the HSLDA hotline.

[Carry_Okie]

First, do you foresee completing your children's homeschooling education prior to the shutdown of homeschooling?

No; but I don't accept your premise. Homeschoolers are growing in number and are politically VERY well organized. The colleges and business want them. There is a growing customer base for home education products and that means suppliers who want to keep that market. There is a growing home-study constituency under the supervision of public schools that is VERY popular with the administrators (they get full funding without having to provide facilities or full-time teachers).

So the way I see it, we're in a situation where the educrats have to stop or co-opt independent home education very soon or the situation will tip the other way. I see the latter.

And second, from the homeschoolers you know, is their response to a shutdown of the homeschool system, likely to include a degree of violent reaction?

No, it's more likely that they'll be co-opted into a publicly operated home-study programme. Then they'll take the freedom to run it independently. Remember, they're patient and willing to accomplish their goals incrementally.

And third, do homeschoolers view the right to homeschool their children on the same moral plane as the RKBA?

Intellectually, yes. When push comes to shove, it depends upon whom the individual is, the circumstances, and what the alternatives are, doesn't it?