The murder of children who were not attending school

With monotonous regularity, cases crop up in the USA of children who were not at school and are subsequently killed by their parents or carers. Many of these deaths have similar features. Apart from non-attendance at school, there is the fact that the children are usually black, often fostered or adopted and the adults looking after them are very frequently religious maniacs. A quick trawl through the internet  will throw up any number of child homicides  bearing two or more of these features. 

There are signs that crimes of this sort are beginning to cross the Atlantic. Where America leads, we follow! The most famous such murder was of course that of Victoria  Climbie. Here you had all the classic elements of such crimes. The child was black and not being sent to school, she was being informally fostered and, significantly, the woman caring for her, Marie-Therese Kourao,  was devoutly religious. She  always carried a Bible in the dock during her trial for murder. The Khyra Ishaq case had three of the warning signs; a child who was black and not attending school, combined with parents who were weirdly religious. Although it didn't ultimately end in death, the Eunice Spry affair fell into the same general pattern. There you had children who were not being sent to school and  who were being fostered by a woman who was an enthusiastic member of a fringe religious group. In 2010, there was another death with three of these features; in addition to non-attendance at school and being a member of an ethnic minority, the mother in that case, Satpal Kauer Singh, was also pretty religious.

It strikes me that children who have more than two of the factors which I list above, might very well be at increased risk of abuse or death. Not going to school by itself may not be a risk factor, but combined with more than one of the things that I mention here, might  be enough to indicate a child at hazard.

Another home educated child dies in America

Every week seems to bring to light another case of a child, more often than not black, being killed under awful circumstances while being home educated in the USA. Here is the latest such victim, 10 year-old Emani Moss:

http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/story/23870307/exclusive-mom-of-10-year-old-didnt-know-about-abuse

School as a refuge from violence and fear

For many home educating parents, schools are seen as bad places. They are institutions where their children’s special educational needs are not met or where ferocious bullying drives children to the point of suicide; to give just two examples. There is another side to this though. For some home educated children, school is a refuge; the only safe and stable point in their lives and being removed from it can be a disaster which results in great unhappiness or, in extreme cases,  injury or death. I am sure that many readers will be familiar with  the death of a home educated child in Barking a couple of years ago. Here is the summary of the Serious Case review:

http://www.bardag-lscb.co.uk/Publications/Documents/child-t-executive-summary.pdf


As will be recalled, the mother was very disturbed, argued with everybody and ended up by killing her child, who was probably on the autistic spectrum, by forcing him to drink bleach.

I draw attention to this case not because I think that a lot of home educating parents are likely to harm their children, nor to appeal for better and more intrusive monitoring of home educated children. Rather, I want to remind people that school  is sometimes the best thing in a child’s life and  that it can be vastly preferable to what is going on at home. I am not a great fan of schools, but I think that home educators sometimes forget how good they can be for children; providing them with a haven of safety and  the bare bones of a stable life. Not everybody is cut out to be a home educator and for those who cannot cope with having their children around too much; schools fulfill a vital role, both for parents and children.