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[Ingela Maisa Johansson]

Hi all,

I hope it's okay I post about this although it's not a question about unschooling!

Anyone who has a second to spare, would you please consider signing this petition for a Swedish 8 year old boy who was taken away from his parents by the social services because he was home-schooled! 

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/return-dominic-johansson-to-his-pa...

I know a petition might not help much, but at least it's something!

It is completely outrageous as there is no abuse or anything like that involved. The family had sold everything and were moving to India when the police came and stopped them. Here's a little bit information about it.   

"During June of this year, Swedish officials boarded a plane bound for India and removed Dominic Johansson from his parents' custody without a warrant or reasonable cause to believe that he was being harmed. Their reasoning? Dominic was being home schooled, which is permitted by Swedish law, and his parents had also legally opted out of giving him standard vaccinations.  

On December 17, after being kept in state custody for several months with minimal visitation from his parents, a Swedish court UPHELD this decision and reduced the parents' visitation hours to a one-hour visit every five weeks.

It is an outrage that a "free" country would rip apart this family simply because they do not conform with the government's mold.  This egregious human rights violation needs to be rectified IMMEDIATELY. The social workers who made this decision ought to be dismissed and Dominic restored to his parents with an official apology.

More information on this case is available at: http://www.hslda.org/hs/international/Sweden/200912220.asp"

http://www.hslda.org/docs/media/2009/200912220.asp

Thanks and all the best, 

Ingela

[Robin B.]

I don't sign anything that is associated with HSLDA.

I'd like to hear more of the story, without that organization's slant. Any unbiased links available? I can't seem to find any that don't have their imprint.

[Ingela Maisa Johansson]

Oh, do you have bad experiences with them? I guess it shouldn't surprise me as they are for homeschool, not unschooling right?

Most other sites are in Swedish, it has been spread in English most by the HSLDA. And the other sites refer to HSLDA because their attorneys are involved to help the family.

HSLDA is not associated with the petition site though.

Here are some other links:

http://www.examiner.com/x-22987-Littleton-Homeschooling-Examiner~y2...

http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/18275

http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2009/December/Home-Schooling-Paren...

http://www.aipnews.com/talk/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=10158&po...

A Swedish newspaper about it:

http://www.expressen.se/Nyheter/1.1662064/familj-skulle-flytta-da-h...

And the blog that covers the whole thing:

http://dominicjohansson.blogspot.com/

I don't know the family personally, I have only talked to the father over the internet. But there are 4 witnesses (a teacher, a nanny and two friends of the family) who confirm that the boy was not being abused, that they are a healthy happy family.

Robin B. said:

I don't sign anything that is associated with HSLDA.

I'd like to hear more of the story, without that organization's slant. Any unbiased links available? I can't seem to find any that don't have their imprint.

[Joyce Fetteroll]

*** Oh, do you have bad experiences with them? I guess it shouldn't surprise me as they are for homeschool, not unschooling right? ***

HSLDA claims to represent all homeschoolers but they're a fundamentalist Christian organization with a fundamentalist Christian agenda. (Which I'm guessing isn't as irritating outside the US as it is inside. In a nutshell, if you're not for everything they believe in you're against family, America and God. :-/)

HSLDA (and other fundamentalist Christian groups) are hugely against the US ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Apparently (according to the English language Christian sources) part of the Swedish government's argument is it's "exercising its authority" under the convention to uphold the child's right to eduction.

So HSLDA is obviously using this case as a way to alert fundamentalist Christians to the evils of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

I'm sorry HSLDA's name is tainting this for the family but I think it would be good for people in Sweden to be aware that HSLDA isn't helping out of the goodness of their Christian hearts. They're using the family to promote their own Christian agenda. As they always do. The HSLDA name tied to any issue is an immediate red flag that they've manipulated the information to promote what's important to them.

(The bottom 3 English language links you sent are all Christian fundamentalist sources. I briefly went searching myself and I couldn't find anything that wasn't tied to fundamentalist Christians so it's hard to find unbiased information. The top link is a homeschooling mom (who ironically lives a few towns away from me) who writes for that Examiner site (where anyone can sign up and contribute as an "expert"). I could be wrong, but I'd bet she doesn't speak Swedish so her information has probably come from the Christian sites. On the other hand, from what I can tell of Google's translation of the Swedish link, they seem secular.)

Which doesn't mean HSLDA won't be helpful. It's unfortunate HSLDA always has a Christian agenda when they help. But they do have money and power -- religion is much better at gathering both than practically any other ideology! -- and HSLDA could as a side effect help the family. (They have been known to mess things up if it helps their own agenda but I hope they've gotten a lot more savvy over the years.)

[Ingela Maisa Johansson]

I don't mean they're perfect parents though. But from what I've read about it they're doing their best, and imperfection shouldn't be a cause to take someone's child away.

It all seems pretty shady, the social services have changed their causes of taking the child several times, first it was home schooling, then minor dental caries and non-vaccination, latest I heard they wouldn't return him since he was traumatized.


Ingela Maisa Johansson said:

I don't know the family personally, I have only talked to the father over the internet. But there are 4 witnesses (a teacher, a nanny and two friends of the family) who confirm that the boy was not being abused, that they are a healthy happy family.

[Ingela Maisa Johansson]

*** HSLDA claims to represent all homeschoolers but they're a fundamentalist Christian organization with a fundamentalist Christian agenda. (Which I'm guessing isn't as irritating outside the US as it is inside. In a nutshell, if you're not for everything they believe in you're against family, America and God. :-/)***

I'm sorry to hear that, I hope they are helpful to the family and don't mess things up..

***(The bottom 3 English language links you sent are all Christian fundamentalist sources. I briefly went searching myself and I couldn't find anything that wasn't tied to fundamentalist Christians so it's hard to find unbiased information. The top link is a homeschooling mom (who ironically lives a few towns away from me) who writes for that Examiner site (where anyone can sign up and contribute as an "expert"). I could be wrong, but I'd bet she doesn't speak Swedish so her information has probably come from the Christian sites. ***

Yes it is true, I couldn't find anything in English that wasn't spread by Christian sites.

***On the other hand, from what I can tell of Google's translation of the Swedish link, they seem secular.***

Also correct. I hope it turns out for the best. I'm glad I won't bring up kids in Sweden, it's a nightmare for an aspiring unschooler...