Schmidts Have Their Day in Court
Sept. 22, 2009, Germany - Today began sunny and bright in Nördlingen, Germany. This town is part of Germany’s Romantic Road and has the history to bear it up. I would like to say it was by careful planning on my part, but it was only the providence of God that our hotel was literally thirty feet from the entrance to the court, the Amsgericht, where the Schmidt family was this day fighting for the right to keep custody of their youngest son, Aaron.
Aaron is fourteen and has two more years left of high school. He is a normal well rounded young man who speaks English well, but seldom does because he is shy around the Americans. He plays on a local football club and is quick to smile. I was with Aaron right before the hearing. He was calm and seemed convinced that everything would be fine.
I had asked permission to attend the court hearing as an interested person and a friend of the family. The judge was happy to have me in the courtroom as long as I did not broadcast her name on the Internet. The Jugendamt, however, was a different matter. Gabriele Eckermann represented the parents in the hearing. Johannes Hildebrandt represented the interests of Aaron.
The Jugendamt asked if I was associated with home schooling. When Gabriele answered honestly that I was—I was one of the attorneys who filed the notorious Konrad case at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France back in 2003—the Jugendamt protested my being allowed in the courtroom for the hearing and so I was banned from enjoying the proceedings. Had I been allowed in the courtroom my lack of working German would have kept me from enjoying the proceedings, so it was a trade off.
The first thing the judge did was asked to meet privately with Aaron and his attorney. In itself this is a big victory. In one case it took hours of arguments from the lawyers to have the attorney be permitted to be with the child.
After examining Aaron for herself the judge continued the hearing. The Jugendamt asked to have Aaron psychologically tested, they naturally assume that there is something wrong with him because he is home schooled. Johannes objected to the test stating that there was no evidence that there was anything wrong with Aaron and the court agreed.
The judge’s final decision today was that the local school should give Aaron a test to see if he is academically okay. Pending the results of that test all the attorneys agree that the court will leave custody with the parents—instead of transferring custody to the State!
This is a big partial victory. This is not the first time it has happened, but it is rare, that the court has not ruled that home schooling is against the law and therefore nothing further needed to be done other than putting the child in school.
This is one of the first times that a German court has intimated that they would not stop the home schooling as long as the child was being educated properly.
This is a huge victory in the making. If we can get this court to continue and more courts to agree that home schooling is not, in itself, harmful, then we can begin to make a dent in the legal system that is currently punishing parents for exercising their legal right to control the education of their children.
After the hearing we went to a nearby restaurant to have tea and discuss the decision. Gabriele and I had a discussion about the controls the State is trying to put on children in Germany and America. There is no doubt that one of the goals of Germany, and the new American approach to government, is to control the thinking of the children in a way that is more aligned with the State rather than with the individual families.
That is why this fight is so important.
For His Kingdom,
Joel
Update from the road in Germany
Let me begin by saying that recently a new German friend of mine expressed concern that my reports on German home school families made it sound like I thought Germany was evil.
Nothing could be further from the truth. I have loved the German people since I was in the third grade, my next door neighbors were from Germany. The father was a professor of German at Berry College and I learned to like the sound of English spoken with a Bavarian accent and the sharp sounds of German spoken by a native.
Germany has given much to the world, including the Reformation. They are a wonderful people and I have never experienced anything other than great hospitality from the people and the government.
With that said, let me update you on our trip.
David and I landed in Stuttgart, Germany on Monday—just hours before a Lufthansa flight with 73 people on board made an emergency landing on the same runway. No one was killed; one was injured, when the plane landed amidst flames without its landing gear.
We immediately began a four train trip to Otting, Germany where the Schmidt family lives. In addition to the legal help the IHRG is giving to the family we have been blessed to work with CBN developing a television report on the plight of the parents and their youngest child. Right now the family faces about 9000 Euros in fines. Next week they have a hearing in family court where the Jugendamt, Youth Welfare Office is seeking to have legal custody of the 14 year old son of Hans and Petra Schmidt taken from the parents and given to the Jugendamt. This is a legal tactic that has been used in Germany before. In fact, if you remember Melissa Busekros, this is the same thing that happened in her case.
In Melissa’s case this lead to Melissa being taken from her family by the police and placed in a psychiatric ward and eventual a youth home for girls for nearly three months. The parents had very limited access to their daughter until she returned home on her on.
The Schimdts are facing the same predicament. If the court grants the transfer of custody to the State it means that at any time afterward the police could arrive at the Schmidt home, during the day or even in the middle of the night to take their youngest child away.
What a terrible pressure for parents to be forced to live under by their own government. There are no accusations of child abuse, no accusations of neglect. The only problem with the Schmidts is that they are exercising their constitutionally guaranteed right to control the education of their own children.
In Otting this right is guaranteed by the Bavarian State Constitution, the German Federal Constitution, and the European Convention on Human Rights. Three times it is guaranteed, yet here we are on the last leg of a lengthy legal journey.
I was surprised to find Hans and Petra peacefully dealing with their situation. They have set their face like flint to stand strong no matter what happens. With great resolve they told CBN that they will not retreat from their fight to raise their child according to their faith, without interference from the State.
Both Hans and Petra looked into the camera’s eye, with great effort to control the emotion rising in them, and told us that they knew that God would stand with them—no matter what happens next week or thereafter.
I wish I had that type of courage. I am here as a Christian attorney standing with them, but my family is not on the line. I will return home to my “normal” life. They will stay home and fight.
One of the nicest benefits of my job is that for two days I was invited into the Schmidt home. I was told to act like I was home. I was given coffee, tea, Coke Light (the German version of Diet Coke), pastries, and a meal of sauerkraut and homemade bratwurst straight off the grill served with cheese, bread, and potatoes grow in their backyard garden.
I left, after two days, encouraged that we have brothers and sisters in our faith who calmly face the persecution of a government willing to take their children away.
I am returning next week to be there at the hearing. Hopefully, the court will allow me to enter the courtroom and observe the hearing. Regardless, I will be there to encourage the family and their attorneys. We are helping with the cost of their legal defense.
Check back later for an update on this case. Thank you for all you do, praying and supporting our work financially. We really do understand that without your prayers and support we could not be there for these families in their time of great need. Because of your prayers you are here with us, in spirit supporting us.