Report veils junior school violence

From the Family First NZ Weekly newsletter:

Report veils junior school violence
The Press 06 August 2008
A Ministry of Education report trumpeting a fall in school suspensions has overlooked a 37 per cent surge in primary school disciplinary actions. …the number of primary school children stood down and suspended has grown from 4800 in 2000 to 6595 last year. In 2007, 945 primary school students were suspended and 5650 stood down …Educators say those numbers reflect an ongoing trend for increasingly violent misbehaviour by children as young as five.

Minister of Education Chris Carter released the ministry report heralding a “concerted effort by schools supported by the ministry”. Family First national director Bob McCoskrie, who pursued the ministry over the data, said he could not believe the report did not even touch on a nationwide problem. “We need to be asking ourselves some pretty tough questions about why almost 1000 kids are being chucked out of primary schools for behaviour that is just so bad that schools have got to the point where they won’t even work with it,” McCoskrie said. READ MORE
Also: Troubled pupils kept on at school – to make government look good! READ MORE

Home schoolers swap teaching tips

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/4633178a7694.html

Home schoolers swap teaching tips

By JOHN HARTEVELT – The Press | Monday, 28 July 2008

Parents who home school their students compared notes on a surge in their number at a gathering in Christchurch at the weekend.

Home schoolers from Christchurch and around the country met in Bishopdale for a curriculum fair and a series of workshops.

National director of the Home Education Foundation Craig Smith said about 50 people attended and visited seminars which covered topics ranging from classical education to how home education could prevent burnout.

Home schooling appealed to many parents because of the “administrative bullying” of teachers and the public education system in general.

“I hear a lot parents tell me my child’s been at school now for three years and they haven’t learned a darn thing,” Smith said.

The number of children home schooled has grown from about 5280 10 years ago to 6500 in July last year.

Home-schooled children must obtain a certificate of exemption from regular schooling.

The Ministry of Education said home-based schooling must meet the same standards as registered schools.

Kathy Duncan said her four children, aged between five and 12, mixed with a lot of other children who were home schooled.

“Certainly our children wouldn’t socialise with 30 other children the same age as them every day but they do have friends they see regularly,” Duncan said.

Home schooling was a a lifestyle choice, she said.

“It’s not just like having school at home … all of life becomes an education. It’s really hard to separate our life from the education.”

Duncan does not have any teaching qualifications but she said she had “a lot of experience”.

Home schooling is most popular on the West Coast, where 1.9 per cent of children are in home schooling.

The Canterbury Home Educators group has 230 members, representing less than 1% of students in the region.

Smith said aspects of the national assessment programme (NCEA) were “anti-intellectual” and the school curriculum needed to get back to basics and cut out political correctness.

Smith did not want any more Government funding because he feared it would take control of home schoolers.

“The ERO (Education Review Office) is sitting in judgment on the way you as a parent relate to your own child,” he said.

Home Schooling Worldwide-April 2008

The following links provide information about Home Schooling worldwide from Andrea Hermitt. This includes recent statistics for Home Schooling on all continents.

Homeschooling around the World: Australia & New Zealand

http://homeschooling.families.com/blog/homeschooling-around-the-world-australia-amp-new-zealand

Homeschooling around the World: Europe

http://homeschooling.families.com/blog/homeschooling-around-the-world-europe

Homeschooling Around the World: African & Asia

http://homeschooling.families.com/blog/homeschooling-around-the-world-african-amp-asia

Homeschooling around the World: USA

http://homeschooling.families.com/blog/category/650

Homeschooling around the World: The Americas

http://homeschooling.families.com/blog/homeschooling-around-the-world-the-americas

The information on the statistics in New Zealand are incorrect. Here are the correct figures:

http://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/statistics/schooling/homeschooling2/homeschooling

At 1 July 2007 there were 6,473 homeschooled students recorded on the Ministry of Education’s homeschooling database, which represents less than one per cent of total school enrolments at July 2007. These students belonged to 3,349 families.

Number of Homeschooled Students in NZ 1998-2007

In 1966 there would have been less than 100 children being home educated in New Zealand. Infact the MoE had no idea how many were being home educated because School Principals approved the exemption not the MoE. The School Principals did not report back to the MoE on who was Home Schooling.

CURRICULUM FAIR/WORKSHOP CHRISTCHURCH 25/26 JULY 2008

In association with Canterbury Home Educators:

CURRICULUM FAIR/WORKSHOP

Venue: Bishopdale Community Centre

Cnr Farrington Ave and Raleigh St, Bishopdale, Christchurch

(above Bishopdale Library)

Dates: Friday 25 July (7.00pm – 9.00pm)

Saturday 26 July (10.00am – 4.00pm)

The Curriculum Fair will be attended by many educational vendors, including a number of homeschool suppliers. Further details on these to come.

The following workshops will also run during the Curriculum Fair:

“Charlotte Mason” with Lennie Harrison – gold coin

“The Nurture and Admonition of the Lord” with Lennie Harrison – optional donation

“Foreign Languages” with Linda Gage – gold coin

“Early Learning” with Linda Gage – gold coin

“Classical Education” with Linda Gage – gold coin

“Home Educating Through Secondary and Preparing for Tertiary Education and the Workforce” with Craig Smith – donation

“Avoiding Burnout – Keeping Going When the Going Gets Tough” with Barbara Smith – donation

Children can submit and display book reviews. There will be a prize draw for all entries.

If anyone would like to sell second hand materials they are most welcome. They can either book a table or if they only have a few items we will have a table available for them to display their materials.

Cost of entry is a gold coin.

Please feel free to pass on this information. This is a combined event for all home educating families. Kathy (contact details below) would love to hear from anyone who would like to book a table, enter a book review or who has second hand materials to sell.

Contact person – Kathy Duncan

Ph. (03) 360 3704 or email kathyduncan@xtra.co.nz

Silence is Golden – “Don’t Talk to the Police”

12 June 2008 Family Integrity #398 — Silence is Golden

 “Don’t Talk to the Police” by Professor James Duane

and

“Don’t Talk to the Police” by Officer George Bruch

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wXkI4t7nuc


Watch an engaging and fascinating video presentation by Professor James Duane of the Regent University School of Law, explaining why — in a criminal matter — you should never, ever, ever talk to the police or any other government agent. It doesn’t matter if you’re guilty or innocent, if you have an alibi or not — it isn’t possible for anything you say to help you, and it’s very possible that innocuous things you say will hurt you. Definitely worth half an hour of your time. Also hear a rebuttal from Virginia Beach Police Department Officer George Bruch, who says that Professor Duane is right.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Gidday all,

Here again at the bottom is the Stuff article proposing new powers for Police to issue safety orders on the spot (forbidding one person from going anywhere near another person, persons or place) merely on suspicion of “family violence”. Vindictive elements of society are able to wreck havoc on families of whom they “disapprove” by making anonymous tips to police without fear of “civil, criminal or disciplinary proceedings” against them “unless the information was disclosed or supplied in bad faith” (CYPF Act 1989, Section 16). Such people are now defacto part of the government spy network, with unelected yet powerful bureaucrats such as Cindy Kiro publicly saying she wants to see neighbours dob each other in for mistreating their children. Problem with that, of course, is some neighbours think home education, instruction in Christianity, eating meat, not eating meat, not getting vaccinations are all acts of abuse.

The outrageous outcome of the twin murder case of the Kahuis — noone is to be charged with their torture and murder — is at the least instructive to us who feel we may be maliciously accused due to vindictive elements of society using the every-parent-is-guilty rewrite of Section 59. And the instruction is: Silence is Golden. Say nothing. Or if you say anything at all, let it be the phrase, “I have nothing to say.”

Most of us do not like this at all. I don’t like it. I prefer to believe that Truth will prevail and that our police believe and seek the same. Then I remember the Arthur Allen Thomas case, the David Bain case, the cops acquitted recently for pack rape when they were manifestly guilty of grossly immoral and unprofessional conduct at the very least. I also prefer to operate on the assumption that I have nothing to hide and welcome an inspection. (Or if I’m guilty, I am willing to face the consequences of my guilt.) But then I remember the many home educators I’ve personally dealt with who have, for whatever reason, received negative ERO reports, usually because the review officer appeared to have a bad hair day (although I’ve also witnessed straight-out anti-Christian prejudice.) Then I remember two successive top ERO staff in charge of the home schooling unit tell me, in nearly the exact same words, that they can tell within 30 seconds of entering a home whether they’ll be getting a positive or negative report…to me this speaks of a wholly subjective process based on things the ERO officer sees, senses, smells and hears rather than on the facts of the case. Then I also remember ex-Labour MP Margaret Autin telling me face-to-face that if she had it her way, home schoolers would be subject to every OSH, MoE, ERO regulation in the book because we are, in her eyes, defacto institutions! Then I remember a past MoE official, one who processed all exemptions for the lower North Island, telling me that at least 50% of the MoE staff at head office would shut all of us home educators down over night if they could.

Then I watched these two video clips, one by a lawyer, the other by a career policeman specialing in interviewing (he says they no longer use the word “interrogate”) suspects. It is American and set against the American written Constitution. Nevertheless, it clearly explains how fallible human foibles can nail innocent persons. It also explains why we have certain “rights” as citizens and yet how easily and casually we will waive those rights because of sheer ignorance and naivite.

You owe it to your family to watch this video clip and fully internalise their contents.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wXkI4t7nuc

***

And here are two more links from another Lawyer:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZePEy7OxV9s

and

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsoY9VxSsIc

 

Regards,

Craig Smith
National Director
Family Integrity
PO Box 9064
Palmerston North
New Zealand
Ph: (06) 357-4399
Fax: (06) 357-4389

Family.Integrity@xtra.co.nz
http://www.FamilyIntegrity.org.nz

 

Our Home….Our Castle

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4579630a11.html

Police get new powers in domestic incidents

By BEN FAWKES – The Dominion Post | Wednesday, 11 June 2008

Police who attend suspected domestic violence incidents will have the power to issue “on the spot” safety orders lasting up to three days under tough law changes proposed by the Government.

The safety orders are part of a raft of changes announced by Justice Minister Annette King to the Domestic Violence Act and welcomed by support groups.

The safety orders would last for up to 72 hours and could be issued in circumstances where police suspected domestic violence but did not have enough evidence to make an arrest.

Other proposals include stiffening the penalties for breaching court protection orders, with a maximum penalty of up to two years jail to give judges an “appropriate sentencing range”.

“When you get problems, often deaths, it is when you get breaches of protection orders,” King said.

The courts would also be allowed to consider making protection orders on behalf of victims and access to counselling programmes for both offenders and victims will be improved.

The proposed law changes were currently being drafted and were expected to be put before Parliament within weeks, King said.

Chief Families Commissioner Rajen Prasad welcomed the proposals and said he hoped they would contribute toward a reduction in domestic violence.

“Better enforcement by the police and courts and better access to programmes will improve safety in families and encourage people to seek help to change their abusive behaviour.”

National Network of Stopping Violence national manager Brian Gardner also backed the proposals, particularly the safety orders which he said had worked well in Western Australia.

“It gets the men out of the house and gives them time to cool down and allows the victims to think about what they can do to keep safe.”

Allowing courts to impose protection orders would give financial relief to victims who he said were currently having to pay around $1500 “on a good day” to obtain a protection order, Gardner said.

But the proposals received a scathing response from the National Party, who said the Government was copying its own policies.

“We believe giving police the ability to issue on-the-spot protection orders for suspected victims of domestic violence will be very effective in putting their immediate safety first,” National’s law and order spokesman, Simon Power, said.

Violent crime had risen by 32 per cent under the Labour Government and Power said on-the-spot safety orders were first mooted by National Party leader John Key last November.

“On-the-spot protection orders are a good idea, we believe they will work, and are flattered Labour thinks so as well.”

King said the initiatives pre-dated National’s announcement and were the result of more than a year of research.

“The discussion paper went out in December last year … it had been worked on for months before that.”

—–Original Message—–
From: Ruby Harrold-Claesson 

Sent: Wednesday, June 11, 2008 7:16 PM
Subject: SV: Police get new powers in domestic incidents

Hi Everyone!

They talk about “abusive behaviour”. What about the abusive behaviour of the CYFS and the children who are being told that their parents do not have the right to correct their unacceptable behaviour?NZ has discrimination against children and Rödeby Cases around the corner.

At present, through the NCHR, I am involved in a case in Stockholm in which the 10-yr old daughter of Pakistani parents – both social workers educated in Sweden – informed her school teacher that her parents had smacked her. The girl was taken immediately (April 14, 2008). Since then they have not been allowed to see or talk to their daughter. In the meantime, they questioned her younger brother, who told them he had not been smacked. He too has been taken into care. The girl has retracted her statement but no one will listen to her. The Administrative Court in Stockholm confirmed the care order on May 30, and the parents and the children are totally devastated.

The parents also face criminal charges for assault of their children.

What a crazy country Sweden is! And NZ has joined the ranks!
What beats me most is that as many as 22 countries have adopted anti-smacking laws and that the European Council and the UN recommend that ALL countries should have such a law! Well, I’m sure that neither Jamaica nor France will follow suit.

Kind regards

Ruby

http://www.nkmr.org