The Oradea Court of Appeal pronounced the final verdict in the case of the two parents from Bihor who chose to educate their school-age children at home, to protect them from the temptation of the Internet. The court upheld the decision of the Alesd Court, where the two received suspended sentences of 4 months in prison and were sent to work for the benefit of the community.
The case is one about which Bihor he also wrote and looks at two parents from Bratca, sent to court last year by the Prosecutor’s Office attached to the Alesd Court on the charge of preventing access to compulsory general education, a crime punishable by imprisonment from 3 months to one year or a fine.
The two are accused of having, in the fall of 2021, withdrawn their four school-aged children – then 8, 10, 11 and 13 years old – from school, and since then have been teaching them at home, in the homeschooling system, because I do not agree with the use of the Internet, TV media channels and online courses that children were taking during the pandemic.
Homeschooling in addition to the law
The couple enrolled their children in Home Life Academy and West River Academy, private schools in the US, so-called “umbrella schools”, which offer guidance to parents who decide to educate their children themselves, for a fee.
But, as the prosecutors explained, the form of education homeschooling it is not recognized in Romania, and the legislation does not allow the equivalence in the country of the courses taken at this form of education.
In addition, Home Life Academy and West River Academy do not appear in the special Register of education provider entities accredited to operate in Romania. In other words, they are not recognized by the authorities in our country.
The investigators also cited the position of the specialists of the General Directorate of Social Assistance and Child Protection (DGASPC) Bihor who, after evaluating the children, established that the four have large educational gaps, compared to their chronological age and study class because, although they studied for about 3 hours , daily, under the supervision of the parents, the couple has no pedagogical training, the woman having only 8 classes, and her husband 12 classes.
Convicted to volunteer
In front of the judge, the couple did not assume any blame, the woman even claimed that the legal procedure is a form of harassment, but, in the end, the judge ruled in favor of the investigators. And, although the Penal Code also provides for the possibility of a criminal fine, the court decided to sentence the couple to a prison sentence, blaming the two parents for denying their four children the right to compulsory education.
“The defendants did not show that they understood the implications of the decision taken, even though they were given the necessary context,” explained the court. Specifically, as the representatives of DGASPC Bihor communicated, between January and April 2022, the family benefited from the unit’s services for counseling and support, in order to re-enroll the children in school, but this did not happen.
The judge sentenced each of them to 4 months in prison, but decided to postpone the application of the punishments for a period of 2 years of supervision, which means that they will also remain with clean records. Perhaps, in this way, the two “will put the needs of minors in the foreground” and “will leave aside the reasons cited relative to the negative consequences of children’s access to electronic communication devices”, explained the court ruling.
The court considered that the deed is, however, serious, which is why the two spouses were obliged to perform 40 days of work for the benefit of the community.
National debate
The verdict of the judges was not final, and the two parents also attacked it, which is why the debates resumed at the Oradea Court of Appeal, which decided on Thursday to uphold the decision of the court in Alesd. At the same time, the two spouses will have to pay 1,000 lei each in favor of the state, judicial expenses in the appeal.
The decision of the Oradea Court of Appeal is, for now, not motivated. As such, the arguments of the judges who pronounced it are not known. It is certain that, the solution being definitive, they are obliged to enroll their children in school.
The case sparked a real national debate, bringing back to public attention the home schooling system, an unauthorized form of education in Romania, and according to the article BIHOREANthe Ministry of Education requested school inspectorates to verify the situation of students withdrawn from compulsory education courses.
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