V

If the last story made you mad- read this one.
Here is their Tuesday story that will air tonight.

Vicky


Home Schooling Nightmares
LOS ANGELES, Oct. 14, 2003

< http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/10/14/
eveningnews/main578007.shtml >

 (Photo: CBS)

Andrea Yates gained national attention when she drowned
her five children in a bathtub. Deanna Laney, told investigators
she beat her three sons with rocks, killing two of them. Both
mothers taught their children at home.

DIG DEEPER

Top 5 Reasons Why Parents Home School:
* Can provide better education at home
* Religious reasons
* Poor learning environment at school
* Family reasons
* To develop character and morality

Courtesy of the U.S. Dept. of Ed.
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FAQs:

* What are some of the benefits of home schooling?
For many, the deepest and most abiding benefit of home
schooling is the claiming (or reclaiming) of their family.
Home schooling families spend incredible amounts of time
together living, learning and playing. Many families like the
flexibility home schooling provides both parents and children.
Children can learn about things they are interested in at a
time in their lives when they are ready to learn. No
preconceived schedule forces them ahead or holds them
back. Vacations and outings can be planned for times when
the family is ready, and often when the crowds are smaller
and the costs lower.

* Are parents really qualified to teach their children?
Parents are their children's first and best teachers for most
of their formative years. Only parents will put these specific
children's needs first and search for the very best learning
resources for their particular children. Children in a home
schooling situation receive individualized, personal attention
from someone who has a vested interest in their success -
their parents. If a parent is not qualified to teach a particular
subject that a child needs or wants to learn, they have many
options: hire a tutor, barter for instruction, get together with
other families to create a class, learn along with the child,
or find a community, distance-learning or online class.

Courtesy of the Ore. Home Ed. Network
(CBS) It is estimated that 850,000 children in this country
are home-schooled -- the overwhelming majority by parents
who have only the best interests of their children at heart.

But homeschooling is largely unregulated. A CBS News
investigation reports how some children have suffered
abuse -- and much worse -- while no one was watching.
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Neil and Christy Edgar will be sentenced next month in
Kansas for abusing and murdering their 9-year-old son.
He suffocated after his head was wrapped in duct tape
as a punishment for taking food without permission.

It's a shocking case, but as CBS News Correspondent
Vince Gonzales reports, not an isolated one. A CBS News
investigation found dozens of cases of parents convicted or
accused of murder or child abuse who were teaching their
children at home, out of the public eye.

"A lot of reports for suspected abuse or neglect are made
by the schools when they observe children coming in that
may be bruised or not well fed," says Marcia Herman-
Giddens, of the North Carolina Child Advocacy Institute.

In Iowa, a father is serving life, and a mother goes on
trial later this month, for killing their 10-year-old adopted
son and burying him at their house. Because they were
home schooling, no one noticed he was missing for
more than a year.

There are two notorious Texas cases.

Andrea Yates gained national attention when she drowned
her five children in a bathtub. Deanna Laney, told
investigators she beat her three sons with rocks, killing
two of them. Both mothers taught their children at home.

"The genuine home schoolers are doing a great job with
their children, but there is a subgroup of people that are
keeping them in isolation, keeping them from public view
because the children often do have visible injuries," says
Herman-Giddens.

Even a very public home school success story can hide a
private dark side. Marjorie Lavery says her father beat her
before the National Spelling Bee then threatened to kill her
after she came in second. He pleaded guilty to child
endangerment after she testified about years of cruelty.

Hal Young and other home school advocates vigorously
defend the right to teach their children at home without
government intrusion.

"The cases that you've mentioned are very, very rare -
extremely rare," says Young.

"There's not a pattern there, there's not a trend," says
Young. "It's not something you can point your finger at
and say there's this vast undercurrent, because there's
not."

But it's hard to know how widespread abuse might be
because the government doesn't keep track. It doesn't
even know how many children are taught at home in this
country.

In eight states, parents don't have to tell anyone they're
home schooling. Unlike teachers, in 38 states and the
District of Columbia, parents need virtually no
qualifications to home school. Not one state requires
criminal background checks to see if parents have
abuse convictions.

The Edgars now face life in prison. The dilemma raised
by their case and others: how to protect parents' rights
to raise their children and still protect children from
parents who abuse them.

------------------------------------------------------------------------