Homeschooling At Its Worst: A Child Starvation Case in Oklahoma

Among the worst cases I've ever consulted on, this one involved a 10 year-old boy tortured through "discipline," isolated from the community and ultimately starved to death by both his mother and her paramour. The paramour was an enlisted soldier at Fort Sill, Oklahoma; the case came under my purview because I was an Army civilian consultant at time the case was investigated. The children, including the dead young boy, were "home-schooled," which for the murdering parents was simply a convenient way to isolate him from an otherwise decent and caring military community around them.I've written on the dangers of home-schooling in this space before. I am not anti-home schooling, and in fact have great respect for people who do it right (a few are old friends). Further, I recognize how children can be and certainly are harmed in traditional schooling environments. But the isolation, secrecy and helplessness of the victim are never more accentuated or unanswerable than in a torturous, unregulated and out of control homeschool environment. Allowing for further deregulation of home education in the name of "freedom" will lead to more children stripped of not only freedom but also safety, health, and their very lives.