Homeschooling to be Criminalized in Sweden

The news of the socialist government’s hardening attitude toward homeschoolers comes following the state seizure eight months ago of seven year-old Dominic Johansson, whose parents were educating him at home. Since the removal of Dominic by police from a plane the family had boarded with the intention of moving to India, Christer and Annie Johansson have been allowed to see their son for one hour every five weeks.

HEF: Social-service agents grab child from school Hustled off in truck to prevent meeting human-rights lawyer

Social-services agents in Sweden have swooped down on an elementary school to grab a 9-year-old boy and take him out of class so he would not meet an internationally known human-rights attorney working on the family’s custody dispute with the state, according to the attorney and parents.

Government officials then canceled a scheduled telephone conversation between the child, Domenic Johansson, and his parents, Christer and Annie, because of “what happened today at the school.”

Read more...

cwNEWZ: Will Sweden Adopt Germany's Persecution of Homeschoolers?

Sweden's parliament members are being warned to drop plans to change their homeschooling laws or soon they could be on par with Germany, where persecution over homeschooling recently convinced a family to leave and come to the U.S. for asylum.

The Home School Legal Defense Association, the premier homeschooling-advocacy organization in the world, gave the warning.

Read more...

WND: Sweden to join Germany in persecuting homeschoolers?

Members of Sweden's parliament are being warned to drop plans to change their homeschooling

laws or they soon could be on par with Germany, where persecution over homeschooling recently prompted a family to flee to the U.S. for asylum.

Read more!

VND: Parents plead for return of 7-year-old son

Dad, mom being allowed 1 hour visit every 5 weeks

A plea has been sent worldwide for moms, dads, brothers, aunts and grandparents – in fact anyone – to contact Swedish authorities and ask them to return to his parents a 7-year-old boy taken into police custody over a dispute that includes the family's decision to homeschool.

Källa

HSLDA: Lifting The Iron Curtain On Homeschooling

Sweden also made headlines when officials removed 7-year-old Dominic Johansson from his parents as they sat on an airplane, ready to leave the country. The family was not charged with a crime, and the Swedish court admits that the family was taking care of their son as they thought best. In Sweden, however, the government plan trumps family decisions.

Källa

Rathkenny Parish: Trouble in Social Utopia

The news of the socialist government’s hardening attitude toward homeschoolers comes following the state seizure eight months ago of seven year-old Dominic Johansson, whose parents were educating him at home. Since the removal of Dominic by police from a plane the family had boarded with the intention of moving to India, Christer and Annie Johansson have been allowed to see their son for one hour every five weeks.

Despite the seizure of Johansson, homeschooling is not officially illegal in Sweden. But the statist views of the current government are deeply antagonistic towards any movement of citizens away from the state control of education.

Källa

CBNnews: Home School Parents Face Losing Son to State

Läs artikel

2009-11-14 America´s Independent Party

In Sweden, police burst onto a plane and took 7-year-old Dominic Johansson from his parents as they were about to leave the country.
Months earlier, they told school officials they were going to home school Dominic, prompting officials to open an investigation.

America's Independent Party

Öppet brev till Fredrik Reinfeldt

Öppet brev till Fredrik Reinfeldt från Homeschooling in Sweden. [1]


21 October 2009

Dear Mr. Reinfeldt,

I write today to plead with you to consider the continued suffering of 7-year-old Dominic Johansson of Gotland, and respectfully urge you to give immediate attention to resolve this situation and return this child to his home and loving parents without further delay. (dominicjohansson.blogspot.com/).

I have great admiration for Sweden and her people. I was a resident of your great land for 7 happy years, and know something of the intelligence, civility, and fair-mindedness of your society. I observed first-hand the deep respect your citizens show for nature, for all people, and for life itself. I was impressed with the priority and value given to children and family life; which was evident not only in the attitude of the people, but also in the policies of government designed to invest in and protect the family, such as providing maternity and paternity leave, free health care for children, barn bidrag, and so forth. In many ways, Sweden provides a model to the world of a truly enlightened society.

I am therefore deeply shocked and disturbed to learn of the separation of Dominic from his family, and the apparent apathy shown by his local and national government officials to the emotional devastation he continues to receive at the very hands of those who are supposed to protect children from harm.

I believe that it is a mark of an advanced and compassionate society to attempt to protect the defenseless, and certainly there are cases that would warrant temporarily removing a child from a dangerous situation until their safety can be assured.

However, it is a fact well researched and documented that family relationships are "the major source of a child's emotional and physical security" and that "separation can have a devastating social and psychological impact." (quoted from a study commissioned by Unicef). The prolonged separation of a young child from parents with whom they have emotionally bonded is cruel in itself, which is why the right to family unity is included in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. The separation of a family should be an option of last resort, and only when the child is in immediate danger.

Why then was young Dominic Johansson suddenly and forcibly separated from his parents in the most alarming manner, assisted by police in uniform? And why has this unnecessarily harsh and traumatic treatment continued month after month without being corrected? After four months, all Gotlands socialtjänsten can come up with to justify their extreme (and from what I understand, illegal) actions against familjen Johansson is a weak and vague claim that "pojken isolerats från kunskapsinlärning" (enligt helagotland. se, "Mejlstorm mot socialtjänsten" ).

Even if that were proven to be true, how could that possibly justify perpetuating the agony and distress of this boy and his parents? If socialtjänsten truly has a concern about Dominic's education, they could easily work to amend the situation through a simple dialogue with his parents, instead of destroying the security and emotional health of an innocent young boy.

I beg you to do all within your power to correct this horrible injustice swiftly , and use all means necessary to assist Dominic Johansson in returning immediately to his own parents, so that he may begin to heal and recover from the impact of the traumatic ordeal he has endured.

With deep respect,

Blaze