GERMAN HOMESCHOOLERS PERSECUTED: EUROPEAN COURT RULES COUPLE’S RIGHTS NOT VIOLATED WHEN CHILDREN TEMPORARILY REMOVED OVER HOMESCHOOLING

republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research purposes:

STRASBOURG — The European Court of Human Rights has
unanimously ruled that a German couple’s rights under Article 8 of the
European Convention on Human Rights were not violated when authorities
temporarily removed their children from their home due to concerns that
they were being homeschooled rather than sent to public school.

“The court finds that the enforcement of compulsory
school attendance, to prevent social isolation of the applicants’
children and ensure their integration into society, was a relevant
reason for justifying the partial withdrawal of parental authority,” it wrote on Thursday.

“It further finds that the domestic authorities reasonably
assumed—based on the information available to them—that children were
endangered by the applicants by not sending them to school and keeping
them in a ‘symbiotic’ family system.”

The court concluded that “there were ‘relevant and sufficient’
reasons for the withdrawal of some parts of the parents’ authority and
the temporary removal of the children from their family home,” and that
the “domestic authorities struck a proportionate balance between the
best interests of the children and those of the applicants, which did
not fall outside the margin of appreciation granted to the domestic
authorities.”

As previously reported,
in 2013, approximately 20 social workers, police officers and special
agents swarmed the Darmstadt home of Dirk and Petra Wunderlich and
forcefully removed all their children. A family court judge had signed
an order that day authorizing officials to immediately seize the
Wunderlich’s children for failing to cooperate “with the authorities to
send the children to [public] school.”

“I looked through a window and saw many people, police, and special
agents, all armed,” Dirk Wunderlich recalled. “They told me they wanted
to come in to speak with me. I tried to ask questions, but within
seconds, three police officers brought a battering ram and were about to
break the door in, so I opened it.”

A month later, following a court hearing about the matter, the
Wunderlich children were returned to their parents after it was agreed
to send them to a state school. However, they were still considered to
be in the custody of the government as Judge Marcus
Malkmus characterized homeschooling as a “straightjacket” for children.

“The children would grow up in a parallel society without having
learned to be integrated or to have a dialogue with those who think
differently and facing them in the sense of practicing tolerance,”
Malkmus wrote. “[Homeschooling presents] concrete endangerment to the
wellbeing of the child.”

An appeals court later overturned the ruling, opining that it was
improper for the judge to withhold legal custody from the parents.

But as Germany considers homeschooling a criminal act, and as the
Wunderlich family remained uncertain about its legal situation, it took its case to the European Court of Human Rights.
The couple had hoped for a positive outcome, but the court unanimously
ruled that the German government acted reasonably when it took the
children away for a time out of concern for their educational and social
well-being.

“[T]he German courts justified the partial withdrawal of parental
authority by citing the risk of danger to the children. The
courts assessed the risk on the persistent refusal of the applicants to
send their children to school, where the children would not only acquire
knowledge but also learn social skills, such as tolerance or
assertiveness, and have contact with persons other than their family, in
particular children of their own age,” the court wrote.

“[T]he children were returned to their parents after the learning
assessment had been conducted and the applicants had agreed to send
their children to school. The court therefore concludes that the actual
removal of the children did not last any longer than necessary in
the children’s best interest and was also not implemented in a way which
was particularly harsh or exceptional,” it opined.

The court also found that “the authorities—both medical and
social—have a duty to protect children and cannot be held liable every
time genuine and reasonably-held concerns about the safety of children
vis-à-vis members of their families are proved, retrospectively, to have
been misguided.”

Read the European Court of Human Rights’ decision in full here.

Dirk Wunderlich expressed disappointment with the court’s ruling.

“It is a very disheartening day for our family and the many families
affected by this in Germany,” he said in a statement. “After years of
legal struggles, this is extremely frustrating for us and our children.
It is upsetting that the European Court of Human Rights has not
recognized the injustices we have suffered at the hands of the German
authorities.”

Alliance Defending Freedom International (ADF), which had represented the family in court, likewise was saddened by decision.

“Petra and Dirk Wunderlich simply wanted to educate their children
consistent with their convictions and decided their home environment
would be the best place for this,” remarked ADF International Director
of European Advocacy Robert Clarke in a statement.

“Children deserve this loving care from their parents. We are now
advising the Wunderlichs of their options, including taking the case to
the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights.”