04 February 2016

Parents Face Jail Time for Missing Paperwork Deadline

Up to 23 years in prison for a simple paperwork error! 

Look.  I understand paperwork is rilly rilly important.  The IRS rathermuch frowns on your not getting your crap in on time.  But they don't send you to jail for 23 years for being even several months late.  Crazy bureaucrats in Ohio, however, would like to jail homeschooling parents for their mistakes and even count their children as being "truant" for not being up-to-date on registry.


In my state, I have to keep a record of the stuff I'm doing and in 9.5 years of homeschooling, I haven't been checked up on even once.  If I lived in a state where paperwork was a must, you betya I would have my stuff in on time or even early.  I'm not excusing the lack of paperwork, mind you.  I'm simply saying that what could happen to these parents is nowhere near proportional to the "crime" that was committed.

What do they do to tenured teachers who forget to submit paperwork or keep good records?  Do they send them to jail for 23 years?  Do they lose their jobs or even lose any pay? 

 Drug dealers.  Say you have a whole buttload of drugs n' stuff in Ohio.  Maximum penalty is 10 years and $20,000.  There's a whole movement out there whining that drug penalties are way too strict because people are addicted and bla bla bla.

But yeah, throw the book at the mom who forgot or was plain ignorant, why don't you?

Ok, the people in Flint.  Is anyone in prison for poisoning a whole community? 

I'm not even saying there shouldn't be a penalty and all that.  I'm just saying that when someone tells you that the system is out to get homeschoolers, mayyybe that's not just paranoia talking sometimes. 

5 comments:

  1. Perhaps the 23 years was a misprint and it should be 2-3 years, but still, it seems ridiculous for paperwork being a little late.

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  2. It looks like there is a month of "absences" in which the children were actually being taught despite the paperwork snafu.

    I have a friend who travels with her child internationally for a month each year around Christmas break. So three weeks' worth of classes are unexcused and no one has taken the kid yet or even given her a ticket.

    I dunno. I could see giving the homeschool a probationary status or a fine. Ridiculous over-reaction.

    ReplyDelete
  3. SIGH. Why doesn't this shock me. :/

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    Replies
    1. I feel like I'm crazy sometimes, but... there's a lot of crazy out there. For public schoolers as well or perhaps especially. They think they own our kids.

      Delete
  4. So scary to read about. Some of these states just have so many rules that are difficult to interpret and can be interpreted in different ways. So if it was fine to do that 10 years ago, maybe a new supervisor has stepped in and they do not interpret that data as innocent. This is just how democracy works best.

    Eliseo Weinstein @ JR's Bail Bonds

    ReplyDelete

Non-troll comments always welcome! :)

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