I mean, most homeschooling parents are not mandatory reporters. Homeschool policy is enabling these situations and empowering abusive parents.

This timeline repeatedly demonstrates that people from around the world, throughout different time periods and with different cultural assumptions, can understand the importance of protecting children and their rights.

Jack Crabtree, 2025: “No human being deserves to be blessed with life after the grave. On the contrary, every human being deserves to be destroyed.” “Most Jews, throughout most of their history, have had a distorted understanding of things." ...😬

My brain: should I really tag old friends when I criticize them publicly? My heart:

Alex Harris, child of evangelical homeschool leader Gregg Harris, is celebrating Chuck Norris on Facebook. Never mind the fact that Norris endorsed accused sexual abusers like Roy Moore and Larry Elder. But this is par for the course for Harris.

"Parents who refuse to acknowledge the harm caused by Christian authoritarian parenting risk alienating their kids long-term."

More than two-thirds of child sexual abuse materials (CSAM, otherwise known as “child pornography”) are made at home, with the victims’ biological father most likely to be the primary perpetrator.

Comparing Donald Trump to children is unfair to children. I know many children who are more kind, respectful, and thoughtful than Trump.

"Eve’s mother alerted schools in September 2022 that she would be withdrawing her daughter and homeschooling."

People need to understand: the family is the primary site of violence in this country. The family is where people are routinely held hostage, tortured, beaten, starved, and even killed. We have to protect kids from these abusers, instead of giving the abusers absolute power over those children

It really feels like every homeschool parent is for the extremist stuff the Parents Rights group is forcing on everyone, so I appreciate the homeschooling parents who speak out against it.

I'm a homeschooling parent (secular and academically rigorous, not religious and hiding from the world) and I fully reject the parents' rights nonsense. I wish there were more oversight of homeschooling families. In some states, there are zero "checks" on these kids!

"Homeschool advocates[,] like gun nuts, regard even the most modest regulatory proposals as the first step on a slippery slope to outright bans."

Parental rights absolutists prioritize extreme anti-government ideology over child safety, defeating modest reform bills meant to prevent abuse and neglect.

Homeschooling doesn’t have to mean embracing the “parental rights” agenda. For my family, it's the opposite: a chance for our kids to go deeper into what interests them most and build intentional community while maintaining the standards expected in school talkingpointsmemo.com/news/i-homes...

"[Homeschooling is] one of the most rewarding decisions our family has made. Which is why I find the modern parental rights movement — now the loudest political voice in homeschooling — so disturbing." ~ @skennedy2504.myatproto.social

"In the first seven months of [Trump's] second term, authorities arrested and detained parents of at least 11,000 U.S. citizen children... That’s an average of more than 50 U.S. citizen kids a day with a parent pulled into detention."

"Epstein was not an anomaly. His case simply highlighted what happens when power goes unaccountable, when silence is rewarded, and when child sexual abuse is treated as a private scandal rather than a public emergency."

HSLDA's Lifetime Achievement Award history: 2007, Gregg Harris: Most famous child, Josh, became a divorced apostate. 2008: Brian Ray, accused of child abuse by his oldest child. 2009: James Dobson, whose advice appeared in the Epstein files. 2010: Bill Gothard. ...🤔🤔🤔

The Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) gave homeschool leader Bill Gothard their “Gregg Harris” Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010, a mere 4 years before Gothard was accused of sexual abuse by dozens of women.

🤣🤣🤣

I was interviewed by @unclosetedmedia.bsky.social on the topics of Katy Faust, the "Greater Than" campaign against marriage equality, and children's rights! Check it out:

I was homeschooled under a christian homeschool organization, and I was abused.

In this interview by Ruth Perry for The Beautiful Kingdom Builders, the former spouse of progressive Christian theologian Benjamin L. Corey alleges he abused her. "Even in Progressive contexts, it is common for survivors to be dismissed," Perry observes.

I am neither anti-homeschooling nor anti-public education. I don't think pitting the two against each other is the right conversation. The conversation should be about putting children's well-being and rights first.

When 37 out of 38 Christian homeschool organizations don’t have child protection policies, I am comfortable saying homeschooled kids are more vulnerable to abuse than other kids. That doesn't mean they're abused more often. But there are fewer safeguards.

As I told @unclosetedmedia.bsky.social, Katy Faust's rhetoric can be difficult to refute because she uses progressive rights language to advance a regressive, evangelical agenda. You have to look beneath the rhetoric at her policy ideas to understand the danger.

Time and time again, totalist individuals and groups have intentionally and methodically used homeschooling to create an environment where severe and disturbing violations of human rights are considered not only normal, but desperately necessary.

Child Liberation Theology's @rlstollar.bsky.social was interviewed for this insightful piece on Katy Faust and the "Greater Than" campaign's efforts to use children's rights to attack marriage equality.

Honored to be interviewed for this important article on Katy Faust's "Greater Than" campaign, which dangerously abuses the concept of children's rights to attack marriage equality in the United States.

Many homeschooling families face unique sibling abuse challenges on account of their conservative Christian beliefs and practices.

I do vibe with exvangelical hate because we exvangelicals often, comically, and destructively overestimate our importance and the originality of our paradigm shifts. We do not do the work. We do not even treat abusers in our communities with the same standards we demand of evangelical communities.

As Terry Pratchett wrote, the root of all sin is to think of people as things. That's fundamental to conservatism, and leads to treating children as something you can sexually abuse.

"When a system teaches that the victim is to blame, refuses to educate on or even talk about sex, treats children as property with no rights, and requires unquestioning obedience, it is not surprising when dysfunction comes to light"

"Tilting at the same tropes and memories for so long makes me think you aren’t even really interested in leaving your bubble..." I don't know. I generally vibe with hating on fellow exvangelicals but "the bubble" did kind of take over the United States government, so it's a bit difficult to avoid.

"I think this happens in large conservative families far more than anyone thinks it does."

The solution to abuse in homeschooling MUST involve taking away homeschooling parents' absolute power over children. There's no way around that. Homeschooled children's rights must be defended by law. The homeschooling movement will NOT self-police.

Children have no power. If other adults don't advocate for them, who will? Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves. Ensure justice for those being crushed. Yes, speak up for the poor & helpless & see that they get justice. /end

Let's be done with the defensiveness and fragility. Let's get to work instead. We have got to stop acting as though the comfort of adults is more important than the well-being of vulnerable children. +

Read up. Search #dayofthehomeschooledchild on socials . Follow and support @responsiblehs.bsky.social Follow the work of @rlstollar.bsky.social

A problem w/this conversation is that it usually devolves into homeschooling parents & entirely excludes the adults who once were homeschooled children & have plenty of lived experience on this topic. +

What will *you* do if you encounter another family where you suspect abuse or neglect? What are *you* doing to listen to and support homeschooling alumni who describe abuse? +

To homeschooling parents who feel discomfort over this topic: What are *you* doing with whatever influence you have? What are *you* doing to educate yourself about safeguarding and response? What are *you* doing to advocate for background checks & policies in your coops? +

We are talking about the well being of children here. We need to find some resolve & a thicker skin, esp since other homeschooling families may be the *only* avenue of a help a vulnerable child might have. +

I suspect a piece of this is that ppl don't want to be judged...they don't want to be thought of as *that* kind of homeschooling families, whatever that means. These days, they don't want to be lumped in w/the Duggars. I simply don't think we have that luxury. +

I have heard: But public schools...! But I have valid reasons for homeschooling...! Not all homeschooling families... Of course. And also: homeschooling families. +

Getting outside help means inviting someone else to scrutinize your choices & family life. It means accountability. That can feel vulnerable, esp given factors that may have led ppl to homeschool. But it's not a reason to deny realities of homeschool culture. +

If they won't do an annualized standardized test, because of fears about state interference, are they going to seek outside help in dealing with abuse? Plus, reporting means reckoning with parental failure to safeguard. +

This is what Jim Bob & Michelle did. When you add in the distrust many homeschooling parents have of governmental interference, are they going to call CPS? Report to the police? Many homeschooling parents reject any kind of external input. +

Churches notoriously respond poorly to abuse disclosures. If the abuser is a sibling, perhaps a child might tell a parent. But let's be honest. The omnicompetent attitudes of homeschooling parents make it very likely they will try to handle it "in house." +