Thursday 17 March 2011

Trust me, I'm a home educator!

Since I am apparently on the verge of being banned from the Badman Review Action Group and shall not, in any case, be posting there again, I feel free to speak my mind pretty freely about recent events on that list.

On February 27th, a man called Christopher Warren posted a message on the BRAG list, providing a link to a website which he ran. He was greeted enthusiastically and people hastened to endorse and cross-post details of his site to other home education lists. He now features quotations from those who welcomed him to BRAG on his website. He had been a member for over four months before posting this, which is alarming in the light of what later came to light. Why was he welcomed so uncritically and trusted at once? The answer is devastatingly simple; he said he was a home educator. It is as straightforward as that. The fact that he was posting under the Lithuanian name for the Russia city of Kaliningrad, which in turn led to the profile of somebody called Mindy Pace, did not seem to arouse any suspicions. I have now explained just who this person is, both here and on BRAG itself. I am indebted to Allie, who comments here, for other information regarding allegations against this truly dreadful man, for example;

http://www.nccg.info/jannicke.html


http://www.nccg.info/memberindex.html


The first of these is sickening. It alleges that Christopher Warren seduced a fifteen year old girl when he was thirty eight. Combined with his own writings, it tells us that here is a man who is best raving mad and at worst an unbelievably wicked child molester.

The response of some members of the Badman Review Action Group to these revelations has been interesting. One might think that the general reaction would be; 'Oh heavens, what on earth have we done? We have welcomed this dreadful man into our community and allowed him to make contact with any number of parents, some of whom might have vulnerable children.' Because this is what has happened. On the strength of claiming to be a home educator, this awful person has wormed his way into the good graces of British home educators. What his motives are, the Good Lord alone knows. Perhaps he is looking for more fifteen year-old girls to abuse. It makes my flesh crawl, even to think about this. The reaction of the list's owner was quite different. The person to blame was me! By drawing attention to this man's mad and/or wicked character, I was spreading poison and 'digging dirt'. the obvious solution was to ban me from the list and then everybody could get back to cosying up to any sort of rogue who turned up, saying, 'Trust me, I'm a home educator.'

Fortunately, some others on the list saw the danger. Others though said that we should not judge this man and that he was entitled to his views. This, in my opinion, takes liberal mindedness to the length of raving lunacy. I certainly expected no thanks for drawing attention to this dangerous character's true nature. One does not expect that in this world! But to find myself cast in the role of villain for warning people to be careful of him is really a bit much. For this reason, I am withdrawing from the BRAG list and shall not post there again. They can welcome as many cult leaders or paedophiles on there as they wish. I will make one point though. As readers will no doubt recollect, only one of the terms of reference for the review of elective home education undertaken by Graham Badman actually concerned education per se. The others were hinting broadly that home educated children might be at risk of various kinds of abuse. When a cult leader like Christopher Warren finds it so easy to make contact with home educating parents in this country, to be welcomed into their community and swiftly endorsed and recommended to other parents is alarming. It is the sort of thing which makes one wonder how many other such individuals might be out there, perhaps preying on vulnerable families by use of the recommendations which they have received uncritically from high profile home educators here; people whose word home educating parents trust. Perhaps we should be a little more cautious about people of this sort until we know more about them. The fact that somebody claims to be a home educator is not in itself a guarantee that he is not also a crazed cultist or child molester.

22 comments:

  1. Also, apparently BRAG has no need of ex-Home Educators. We are surplus to requirements.

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  2. this man christopher Warren should be reported to the police if he is looking for more fifteen year-old girls to abuse?

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  3. webb says- Graham Badman actually concerned education per se. The others were hinting broadly that home educated children might be at risk of various kinds of abuse

    that was the problem with crazy old Badman review he was smearing every one as a parents who abused their child that is what caused the upset and angry and helped to defeat his mad ideas. The smear and abuse bit was done on the orders of Ed balls and the old children's department in an attempt to frighten the public that something needed doing about home education. it was an attempt to slow down the rate of home education it is a sign of how desperate Balls and his department where to use abuse as a weapon Balls could see more children rejecting his state school system! He should have asked why is this happening but he did not he wanted to blame parents and home education! his review has done untold damage with home educators who often went along with their LA. Balls come out into the open and agreed with Badman recomandations and so far has not said sorry! mind you Balls atill can not accepte that the UK has to take action over the huge debts he helped to run up! Balls sold off our gold at to cheap a rate!

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  4. A lot of double standards. The HE "community" is starting to remind me of the Masons lol.

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  5. I stopped borhering with the BRAG list when it became obvious that all the nutters from HEUK had jumped on it. Suprised you put up with the nonsense for this long Simon. I don't know what, besides some sort of statutory regulation can be done to prevent would-be paedophiles from joining any list, although when it becomes apparent that such has occurred immediate measures to out and exclude such an individual should be taken straight away. Instead these stupid people - sorry I can find no other word - shoot the messenger instead! You're well out of it Simon.

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  6. bothering. Please introduce an edit button.

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  7. You know what...as a newcomer to HE, this is all incredibly exciting!! lol

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  8. I left a while ago and had missed your warning about this man. Its true scary that he can have access to such list, certainly makes you wonder how safe lists are.

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  9. Truly even - I second a edit button.

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  10. So on the one hand, home educators are too paranoid when they question whether someone is a genuine home educator (your article, 'Asking too many questions'), and on the other hand they are too trusting. Can't win really.

    Whilst I agree this man should be banned from HE lists now that we know who he is, I don't think that we should be investigating every new member to the lists in case the are paedophiles. It would be insulting and impractical. He appears to be using web site links to genuine HE organisations in order to give himself an acceptable image. This does not mean that the web sites he links to agree with his opinions or personal actions. That's not how the internet works.

    It also doesn't mean that campaigns he links to should automatically be avoided. Yes, look into them more closely that you might otherwise if they were recommended by someone else (who you trust), but why automatically avoid them? He may well just be used their link for his own purposes. Allowing him to dirty their campaign by his choice to associate himself with it just compounds his evil actions.

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  11. 'Its true scary that he can have access to such list, certainly makes you wonder how safe lists are.'

    The simple answer is; not all safe. Anybody can join and we don't even know who we are talking to. Most of us would, if we sat in the park and a strange guy sat down next to us, be a little cautious about revealing too much about ourselves. Something about the friendly atmosphere in lists and forums makes people a little more open. This can be risky.

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  12. 'Anonymous said...
    bothering. Please introduce an edit button.

    '

    The last time I meddled with the controls on blogspot, I eradicated a dozen posts. The resulting conspiracy theory took months to die down! If anybody can give me step by step instructions though, I'll have a look and try.

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  13. ' don't think that we should be investigating every new member to the lists in case the are paedophiles. It would be insulting and impractical.'

    I agree. We should just exercise caution with strangers.

    'Allowing him to dirty their campaign by his choice to associate himself with it just compounds his evil actions.'

    I am not at all sure that this is what has happened. I am beginning to think that there might actually be a link to the Johansson family.

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  14. "It also doesn't mean that campaigns he links to should automatically be avoided. Yes, look into them more closely that you might otherwise if they were recommended by someone else (who you trust), but why automatically avoid them? He may well just be used their link for his own purposes. Allowing him to dirty their campaign by his choice to associate himself with it just compounds his evil actions."

    Presumably the campaign could issue some sort of disclaimer disassociating itself from this person?

    When it comes to Johansson campaign, I have been unable to find information from a source that I could trust. Most home educators who I know IRL and do trust had simply taken their information from the HSLDA influenced campaign which I don't.

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  15. "The simple answer is; not all safe. Anybody can join and we don't even know who we are talking to. Most of us would, if we sat in the park and a strange guy sat down next to us, be a little cautious about revealing too much about ourselves."

    Yet you criticize those of us who choose to remain anonymous for just this reason.

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  16. 'Yet you criticize those of us who choose to remain anonymous for just this reason.'

    I can't see any risk in signing one's name to a letter in a newspaper or in a comment on a bogpost. I'm not suggesting that anybody who comes on here should become my friend, or even trust or like me!

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  17. "I can't see any risk in signing one's name to a letter in a newspaper or in a comment on a bogpost."

    It's nothing to do with you or trust of you. At least one regular commenter ended up having problems because they were identified by someone who lives near them and became very uncomfortable/concerned as a result. As you suggest, we have no idea of who is reading your blog or where they live and some of them I'm sure are very strange.

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  18. Simon wrote,
    "Since I am apparently on the verge of being banned from the Badman Review Action Group and shall not, in any case, be posting there again, I feel free to speak my mind pretty freely about recent events on that list."

    I think you are making a hasty judgement there.

    "Fortunately, some others on the list saw the danger. Others though said that we should not judge this man and that he was entitled to his views. This, in my opinion, takes liberal mindedness to the length of raving lunacy."

    To be fair, I think this was before they heard about the extent of his views.

    "But to find myself cast in the role of villain for warning people to be careful of him is really a bit much. For this reason, I am withdrawing from the BRAG list and shall not post there again."

    You seem to be judging the whole list by the comments of a few and, judging by recent messages, a minority.

    "When a cult leader like Christopher Warren finds it so easy to make contact with home educating parents in this country, to be welcomed into their community and swiftly endorsed and recommended to other parents is alarming."

    Anyone can make easy contact with home educating parents or any other parents in this country or any country. That's how the internet works. It's also why I've warned you and others in the past about the dangers of posting too much information about your families on the internet. You never know who is going to read it or how dangerous they are.

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  19. Is there enough evidence to justify BRAG banning Warren? Does anyone know why the abuse case was not taken to the police? How trustworthy is that information?

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  20. I don't believe there is any reason to ban Waren, he posted one message asking the UK HE members to sign a petition (one of many such petitions) to support Domenic Johanson in being re-united with his parents. The alledged abuse case may be true, I have no idea (though I'm somewhat surprised that something like that is being bandied around the web and no action has been taken)it could be a total fabrication because anyone can post anything on the web if they so choose!

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  21. "it could be a total fabrication because anyone can post anything on the web if they so choose!"

    Of course anyone can say anything. But a little bit of time finds several websites that mention this organisation in terms of a polygamous, patriarchal cult. We all have to make our own judgements but I have heard enough about such set ups to believe that the abuse of young women and girls is not at all uncommon in them.

    "The alledged abuse case may be true, I have no idea (though I'm somewhat surprised that something like that is being bandied around the web and no action has been taken)"

    Really? You're surprised? This allegation goes back several years and relates to something said to have happened in a closed community. Personally I'd be amazed if anyone was rushing to investigate. Just think what a struggle it has been for the many, many victims of abuse by clergy to get their voices heard.

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  22. With this extra information, banning Warren from BRAG does seem justified. Any members here going to make the suggestion on list? Or are you all happy sharing a list with this man?

    A BRAG non-member, & anonymous who wrote on 17 March 2011 08:16

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