Goverment Agent, Cops Confront Homeschoolers
According to a report in the MetroWest Daily News, social workers from the Department of Social Services and police officers confronted the family at 7:45 a.m. Thursday, demanding that George, 15, and Nyssa, 13, complete a standardized test.
As they have in the past, the children's parents, George and Kim Bryant, refused to allow their children to go, even though the government now has legal custody of the kids.
"There have been threats all along. Most families fall to that bullying by the state and the legal system," George Bryant Sr. told the paper. "But this has been a six-year battle between the Waltham Public Schools and our family over who is in control of the education of our children. In the end, the law of this state will protect us."
DSS worker Susan Etscovitz tried to use the fact that the Bryants technically don't have custody of their own children in her plea.
"We have legal custody of the children and we will do with them as we see fit," Etscovitz told the Bryants, according to the Daily News. "They are minors and they do what we tell them to do."
Four police officers were also at the scene and attempted to coax the Bryants into complying with the DSS worker.
One of the law-enforcement officers told the paper: "We will not physically remove the children."
According to the report, the Bryants contend that no government entity has the legal right to force their children to take standardized tests, even though DSS workers have threatened to take their children from them.
The Waltham Public School's homeschooling policy requires parents to file educational plans and develop a grading system for their home-educated children. The Bryants have refused to do so.
"We do not believe in assessing our children based on a number or letter. Their education process is their personal intellectual property," Bryant told the Daily News.
"We don't want to take the test. We have taken them before and I don't think they are a fair assessment of what we know," said Nyssa Bryant. "And no one from DSS has ever asked us what we think."
DSS made it clear it leaves open the option of removing the children from their home.
"No one wants these children to be put in foster homes. The best course of action would be for (the Bryants) to instruct the children to take the test," Etscovitz told the paper.
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