From Scott Woodruff, HSLDA Senior Council:
Dear HSLDA Members and Friends:
I’m optimistic and persistent, so I hate to give up hope for a peaceful resolution to a conflict, but that’s where I find myself today. After unavailingly asking Education Commissioner Pender Makin, Assistant Attorney General Sarah Forster, staffer Pamela Ford-Taylor, and many school unit superintendents to drop their inexcusable demands for the birth dates of homeschool children, I have asked HSLDA’s seasoned litigation team to take over on this long-running issue.
Our team is giving Makin until October 30 to right the wrongs she has been inflicting on Maine families.
Please send a copy of this letter to your superintendent (email, fax, hand delivery, snail mail, your choice). We want every superintendent in the state to consider his or her role in collaborating with the commissioner to bully parents into divulging private birth date information.
As we point out in our letter, officials at several public school districts have told homeschooling parents that if they do not provide this information their children will be considered truant.
LOOKING FOR RESOLUTION
I was sued once—for backing into someone. I didn’t like being sued! I assume no one else does, either. That’s why I’m glad our team is giving Makin a generous amount of time to make her final decision.
Filing a lawsuit is a joyless process. There is always the sense that there might have been a better way to solve the problem. Despite my optimistic nature, I’m convinced that delay at this point would only swell the ranks of parents who have been traumatized by groundless threats.
Makin’s representatives say they “need” your child’s birth date. That’s highly debatable. But it is not debatable that Makin needs to do justice. If she won’t, we will seek justice in the courts.