Thank you for your input.
Just to let you know (not being snarky just filling in information gaps), I have homeschooled my boys for the last 4 years and trust me, I am painfully aware of how much work homeschool is, lol. My friend is too because she frequently comes over to give me a hand (new baby makes things a little crazy). The bad homeschool parents make the rest of us look bad. Some of us put everything we have (and then some) into it
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The reason that I chose to homeschool my sons is because they were being bullied about being Native American. My oldest was the primary target and fortunately my youngest was in a low enough grade that they had not started in on him yet.
My son was in sixth grade and it started as just teasing, which we went with, no big deal, kids are kids. Then they moved to racial slurs. At that point my husband and I went in for a meeting with the principal. After being told that her (the principal) great, great, grandmother was Pocahontis (I am sbsolutely NOT kidding about that), she proceeded to tell us that our son was aking for it. When we asked her how she came to that conclusion she said that If he had not told them he was Native American then they would not be teasing him about it. The only reason he told the kids that he was Native was because one of them asked him why he had long hair. As is happening with my friend, nothing was done. Eventually my son ended up with a concussion (diagnosed after the hospital did a CT scan in the ER) after he was jumped in the hallway at school. After leaving the ER I went to the principal with the paperwork from the hospital. I asked what was going to be done and I was told that it was confidential. That was when I told her we would be homeschooling.
After I left the school I went to the police station to file a complaint because I wanted the kids parents to find out what had happened. The police chuckled, took the report, told us that we didnt look indian and then said that it would be taken care of. One of the parents out of five were notified. When I ran into the mother of the child who was notified a couple of months later I talked to her about the incident. Apparently the police told her that my son had a little bump on his head and the only reason that they bothered her with this was because they had to. I got together with her a week later and brought the ER report. She was furious at the school and felt horrible for what had happened.
The reason that I wrote this rediculously long story is because unfortunately raceism is alive and well in many parts of the US. We all think that this is ancient history and yet it is FAR from it. I understand what my friend and her daughter are going through because our family went through it four years ago. What happened to my son happened in Middle school, what is happening to my friends daughter is happening in Highschool. This is a district wide issue. There are a couple of other familys who have gone through the same thing. When we see a black family move into town my husband and I place bets with eachother as to how long it will take for the family to have to move. The average seems to be about 6 months.
Maybe the reason that nobody thinks this is still an issue is because the victims dont talk. We are afraid that we wont be believed or even that consequences may come our way if we speak out.
Now, can my friend homeschool her daughter according to the state of Michigan's homeschool laws or, because she is already in the system, can the court dictate the details of how her daughter is to recieve her homeschool education?
Thank you
