Contact: Albert Lubberts (519) 763-1150

Kelly Green (250) 370-9800

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Provincial Advocacy Group Demands That Government Stop Harassment

GUELPH, Ontario. . . A provincial advocacy group for families practicing

home-based education, or “homeschooling,” has filed an official 17 page

report with the provincial ombudsman’s office against the Ministry of

Education and Training and local school boards. Ontario families have been

targeted for repeated harassment over the past several years by the Ministry

of Education, to the point that some families have been forced to appear in

court on trumped up charges of “truancy” or “causing their children not to

attend school” without due process of law. Albert Lubberts, President of the

Ontario Federation of Teaching Parents (OFTP), says that the time has come

to stop this abuse of power.

Among the abuses listed in the complaint were:

· misrepresentations of legal responsibilities to home-educating parents by

the Ministry and by school board officials;

· demands on the part of school boards for, among other things, frequent

home visits, unsupervised access to children in order to question them about

home practices, and even lists of television shows watched by children (all

demands outside of the requirements of the Ontario Education Act);

· abuse of the legal “inquiry” process outlined in the Act to determine

satisfactory instruction on the part of home-educating families (i.e. the

calling of inquiries when there is no evidence that there is a need for such

investigation, simply because families refuse to submit to school boards' extra-legal demands);

· court proceedings initiated against families with no evidence and without

allowing families the due process of an inquiry;

· a campaign against private schools set up to cater to the needs of

home-educating families;

· the encouragement of harassment of families by other agencies (e.g.

reporting home-educating families receiving family benefits as “truant” to

social services agencies, causing some families interruptions in benefits

payments and considerable distress).

Lubberts says the organization conducted interviews with home-educating

families across the province for a year in preparation for the submission of

the report. OFTP has received hundreds of phone calls and complaints about

school board harassment over the years, with the problem getting

progressively worse over the past two to three years. OFTP has complained to

the Ministry, and provided written documentation of its complaints many

times. In a last bid to resolve the problem before initiating legal action

against the Ministry, OFTP contacted the provincial ombudsman.

Says Lubberts, “We are hopeful that we can bring the Ministry and school

boards to see reason via this process of mediation. OFTP believes that the

Ministry should respect and limit its actions to the processes defined in

the Education Act. We deplore the actions of Ministry officials who consider

themselves to be above the law. Their behaviour to home-educating families

constitutes both prejudice against a viable educational alternative, and

harassment of individual families. There is no place for this type of

prejudice in a free society, and it is certainly antagonistic to the

philosophy of tolerance for diversity promoted in the public schools. The

Ministry of Education and Training has misrepresented the law and its

requirements to families, to the media, and to other governmental agencies.

With regard to the issue of ‘satisfactory instruction,’ the Ministry of

Education has attempted to hold families hostage, and has demanded of

home-educating parents a far higher standard than is expected of public

school teachers.”

“It is astounding that the very institutions that are supposedly charged

with protecting our freedoms and our democracy, our tolerance, and our

diversity, should mount a long-term campaign against freedom of choice, and

against families who choose an educational alternative of unquestionable

success. Education officials clearly feel threatened by this alternative.

Instead of waging war against it, they should be studying our methods to see

how our successes might be translated into the public arena,” continues

Lubberts. He further maintains that his group will fight any changes to

policy, regulation, or law, that do not reflect the truth about the success

of home-based education, or that attempt to curtail the civil rights of

families in their choice of educational alternative or philosophy.

Catherine Pillinger, a home-educating mother of five, and an officer of

OFTP, states, “In a truly diverse and vibrant society, we need more

alternatives for children, and more flexibility in meeting individual needs.

The Ministry’s attempt to shut down alternatives for home-educating

families, if successful, will mean that only the wealthy will have an

alternative to public school programs. Those who can afford it will continue

to buy their way out. In what way does eliminating alternatives serve the

interests of children? Those whose children’s needs are met by the public

school system are in no way threatened by those of us who choose a different

alternative. The Ministry, and the school boards, however, seem very

threatened by us. Perhaps they are afraid that if too many children are

educated without the assistance of professional educators, too many jobs

will be lost.”

Whatever their reasons or motivations, says Lubberts, the Ministry’s and

school boards’ biased attitudes, ignorance about home-based education, and

harassment of families, will no longer be tolerated by the families of

Ontario. For a look at the complete text of the Ombudsman’s Report, visit

http://www.flora.org/oftp/Ombrpt2001983.html. For more information, or for

interviews with individual home-educators, please contact Albert Lubberts at

(519) 763-1150 or Kelly Green at (250) 370-9800.

The Ontario Federation of Teaching Parents is a non-sectarian, non-profit

organization committed to the examination and address of common concerns of

home-educating parents. OFTP acts as a link between home learners in Ontario

and the Ontario Ministry of Education, and lobbies the provincial government

on issues of concern to home-educating families.

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