German family moves to Tennessee and seeks asylum in the United States to homeschool their five children

ABOVE: Hannelore Romeike works with Damaris Romeike, 3, at their home Friday, March 13, 2009 in Morristown, Tenn.

By ROSE FRENCH | Townhall.com | Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Homeschooling is so important to Uwe Romeike that the classically trained pianist sold his beloved grand pianos to pay for moving his wife and five children from Germany to the Smoky Mountain foothills of Tennessee.

Romeike (roh-MY'-kee), his wife Hannelore, and their children live in a modest duplex about 40 miles northeast of Knoxville while they seek political asylum here. They say they were persecuted for their evangelical Christian beliefs and homeschooling their children in Germany, where school attendance is compulsory.

When the Romeikes wouldn't comply with repeated orders to send the children to school, police came to their home one October morning in 2006 and took the children, crying and upset, to school.

"We tried not to open the door, but they (police) kept ringing the doorbell for 15 or 20 minutes," Romeike said. "They called us by phone and spoke on the answering machine and said they would knock open the door if we didn't open it. So I opened it."

Romeike, like many conservative parents in the U.S., said he wanted to teach his own children because his children's German school textbooks contained language and ideas that conflicted with his family's values.

He had to pay fines equivalent to hundreds of dollars for his decision, and he's afraid that if he returns to Germany, police will arrest him and government authorities will take away his children, who range in age from 11 to 3.

The Romeike asylum case is expected to go before an immigration judge in Memphis on Thursday, according to Michael Donnelly, an attorney with the Home School Legal Defense Association representing the family.

Bernadette Meyler, a Cornell Law School professor who has studied differences in religious liberty between the U.S. and Europe, said she's never heard of another case like this in the U.S.

Ana Santiago, a regional spokeswoman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, said the agency is barred from discussing specific political asylum cases and doesn't keep track of the reasons asylum is granted.

Donnelly says the Romeikes saw more freedom to homeschool in the U.S.

"Germany sticks out in the midst of Western Europe for having this harsh repression against parents," Donnelly said. "They have this notion that homeschool creates this parallel society and they deem that as dangerous."

Lutz Gorgens, German consul general for the Southeast U.S., said he's not familiar with the Romeikes' specific situation but believes the claim of persecution is "far-fetched." He defended Germany's requirements for public education.

"For reasons deeply rooted in history and our belief that only schools properly can ensure the desired level of excellent education, we (Germany) go a little bit beyond that path which other countries have chosen," Gorgens said.

Germany's approach to homeschooling is starkly different to the U.S. and other European countries. Homeschool students have been growing by an estimated 8 percent annually in the U.S. and as of 2007 totaled about 1.5 million.

Only about 500 children in Germany are taught at home, experts estimate.

Romeike took his three oldest children out of school in Bietigheim-Bissingen in the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg in 2006.

His oldest child, Daniel, had a health textbook that used slang terms to describe sexual relations _ including the German equivalent of the "F-word." Other schoolbooks taught disrespect of authority figures and had images and tales about the occult, that included vampires and witches, Romeike said.

"It's really different in public schools today than when I was in public school," Romeike said. "They (the state) believe children must be socialized and all kids must grow up the same and act the same, otherwise they wouldn't fit in society."

German state constitutions require that children attend school. Parents who don't comply face punishment ranging from fines to prison time. Germany's highest appellate court ruled in November 2007 that, in severe cases, social services officials could remove children from their parents' care.

Not long after the Romeikes removed their children from school in September 2006, the principal talked to the parents about their concerns but urged them to send their children back to class. A letter from town mayor said the couple would be fined 30 euros per child each day they weren't in school. When the Romeikes didn't comply, police went to the home the following month.

Susanne Neib, spokeswoman for Baden-Wuerttemberg's Ministry of Education, Youth Affairs and Sports, said that when authorities learn of cases like the Romeikes, they visit the home to explain the benefits of public school.

She said the state tries to intervene against homeschooling very rarely, though she declined to estimate how often such cases arise.

The Romeikes went before a German district judge in 2007 to defend their homeschooling but lost, and higher courts refused to look at the case.

Donnelly's group helped the family move last August to Morristown, where the Romeikes say numerous other families homeschool their children.

Meyler said the U.S. is more tolerant of homeschooling because of religion's prominence in the country's founding. Germany is more concerned about educating students equally, she said.

"The idea is homeschooling might lead to the emergence of separate societies that would not share the same vision of the (German) state," Meyler said.

But interest in homeschooling hasn't died out. Elisabeth Kuhnle of the Network for Education Freedom, a German homeschool advocacy group, says as many as 50 families attended a recent meeting in Baden-Wuerttemberg.

The consul, Gorgens, and other officials maintain that most parents in Germany believe it's most appropriate to send children to schools.

"If you put that to a vote, I'm sure that the obligation to send kids to school would be overwhelmingly accepted. It's a popular thing, which does not say that every single parent is happy about it."

In violation of the law, NC judge orders homeschooled children into public school on whim that they need more "well-rounded" education

Judge orders homeschoolers into public district classrooms

Decides children need more 'focus' despite testing above grade levels

By Bob Unruh | WorldNetDaily | March 11, 2009

A North Carolina judge has ordered three children to attend public schools this fall because the homeschooling their mother has provided over the last four years needs to be "challenged."

The children, however, have tested above their grade levels – by as much as two years.

The decision is raising eyebrows among homeschooling families, and one friend of the mother has launched a website to publicize the issue.

The ruling was made by Judge Ned Mangum of Wake County, who was handling a divorce proceeding for Thomas and Venessa Mills.

A statement released by a publicist working for the mother, whose children now are 10, 11 and 12, said Mangum stripped her of her right to decide what is best for her children's education.

The judge, when contacted by WND, explained his goal in ordering the children to register and attend a public school was to make sure they have a "more well-rounded education."

"I thought Ms. Mills had done a good job [in homeschooling]," he said. "It was great for them to have that access, and [I had] no problems with homeschooling. I said public schooling would be a good complement."

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In the North Carolina case, Adam Cothes, a spokesman for the mother, said the children routinely had been testing at up to two years above their grade level, were involved in swim team and other activities and events outside their home and had taken leadership roles in history club events.

On her website, family friend Robyn Williams said Mangum stated his decision was not ideologically or religiously motivated but that ordering the children into public schools would "challenge the ideas you've taught them."

Williams, a homeschool mother of four herself, said, "I have never seen such injustice and such a direct attack against homeschool."

"This judge clearly took personal issue with Venessa's stance on education and faith, even though her children are doing great. If her right to homeschool can be taken away so easily, what will this mean for homeschoolers state wide, or even nationally?" Williams asked.

Williams said she's trying to rally homeschoolers across the nation to defend their rights as Americans and parents to educate their own children.

Williams told WND the public school order was the worst possible outcome for Ms. Mills, who had made it clear she felt it was important to her children that she continue homeschooling.

According to Williams' website, the judge also ordered a mental health evaluation for the mother – but not the father – as part of the divorce proceedings, in what Williams described as an attack on the "mother's conservative Christian beliefs."

According to a proposed but as-yet unsigned order submitted by the father's lawyer to Mangum, "The children have thrived in homeschool for the past four years, but need the broader focus and socialization available to them in public school. The Court finds that it is in the children's best interest to continue their homeschooling through the end of the current school year, but to begin attending public school at the beginning of the 2009-2010 instructional year."

The order proposed by the father's lawyer also conceded the reason for the divorce was the father's "adultery," but it specifically said the father would not pay for homeschooling expenses for his children.

The order also stated, "Defendant believes that plaintiff is a nurturing mother who loves the children. Defendant believes that plaintiff has done a good job with the homeschooling of the children, although he does not believe that continued homeschooling is in the best interest of the children."

The website said the judge also said public school would "prepare these kids for the real world and college" and allow them "socialization."

Williams said the mother originally moved into a homeschool schedule because the children were not doing as well as she hoped at the local public schools.

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