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Authorities Ask German Homeschooling Family to Give up Custody of Other 5 Children

Daughter Melissa in 3rd foster home, having new psychiatric testing after stating first report inaccurate and she was misquoted

By Gudrun Schultz

Germany, February 26, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The parents of a 15-year-old school girl taken from her home by authorities in a battle over home schooling have been asked to give up custody of their other five children, as part of a resolution to the situation offered by German officials.

The latest development in the ongoing battle between the Busekros family and the German authorities was reported by the Home Schooling Legal Defense Fund, a U.S.-based organization that has been tracking an accelerating crackdown against home schooling families in Germany.

Melissa Busekros was removed from her family home on Feb.1 by social workers accompanied by 15 police officers, under a court order to use force if necessary. The girl was placed in a psychiatric ward for evaluation and determined to be “school phobic,” according to authorities. Without her parents’ knowledge or consent she was then placed in an undisclosed foster home.

The girl’s parents began tutoring her in math and Latin at home, after she had trouble keeping up in class. When the school found out, Melissa was expelled and her parents then began home schooling her full time. The Youth Welfare office took the parents to court and received permission to conduct a psychiatric evaluation of the girl, and two days later returned to take her into custody and place her in the child psychiatric unit.

Hubert Busekros, the girl’s father, told HLSDA he and his lawyer were offered a resolution to the situation that required the Busekros’ to give up custody of their five other children. Mr. Busekros said the authorities are considering performing psychiatric evaluations of the other children, he fears with the intent of discrediting the couple as parents and permanently breaking up the family.

Home schooling is illegal in Germany under a law dating back to Adolf Hitler. Home schooling families have faced increasing persecution in recent years, with police in several cases physically transporting children to school. An appeal to the European Court of Human Rights failed last year when the court ruled Germany’s enforcement of the law did not violate the rights of parents to educate their own children, saying the interests of the state in educating children took precedence over the views of the parents.

Melissa has now been moved to a third foster home in the country, and is undergoing fresh psychiatric testing after saying the majority of the first psychiatric report was inaccurate and she was misquoted.

HSLDA is asking supporters to contact the German Embassy with this message:
“Over 40 innocent homeschool families have been prosecuted, fined, and in some instances, had their children removed to state custody. This is an outrage. Many homeschool families are fleeing Germany to nearby European countries where homeschooling is legal. The most incredible violation of human rights is the Busekros family, whose child was put into a psychiatric ward and then removed to an undisclosed location, all for the crime of homeschooling. Germany will not long be known as a free nation if it suppresses the right to choose homeschooling.”

The German Embassy in Canada can be contacted at:
German Embassy
1 Waverley Street
Ottawa, ON, K2P 0T8
Tel.: 613-232-1101 Fax: 613-594-9330
Email: germanembassyottawa@on.aibn.com
The embassy can be emailed from its website: http://www.ottawa.diplo.de/Vertretung/ottawa/en/Kontakt.html

The Minister of Justice in Bavaria:
Beate Merk
Prielmayerstr. 7
80335 Munchen
Tel. +49 89 5597 1799
Fax +49 89 5597 3580
Email: beate.merk@stmj.bayern.de

See previous LifeSiteNews coverage:

German Homeschool Student Placed in Foster Care, Parents Not told Location
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/feb/07022002.html

POLICE CRACKDOWN ON HOME-SCHOOLING IN GERMANY
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2000/jul/00072604.html

Action Call as German Homeschooled 15-year-old Sentenced to Child Psychiatry Unit
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/feb/07020502.html

German School Official Declares "Homeschooling Illegal"
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/jan/05011203.html

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