The court rejected the appeals of the two husbands and kept the sentence of the Alesd Court by which they were sentenced to four months in prison with a suspended sentence and obliged to work for 40 days in community service.
“Rejects as unfounded the criminal appeals declared by the defendants (…) and (…), against the criminal sentence (…) of December 21, 2023 pronounced by the Alesd Court. Fully upholds the appealed criminal sentence. It compels the defendants (…) to pay to the state the sum of 1,000 lei, each, as legal expenses in the appeal”, stated the Court of Appeal in the minutes of the decision published on the court portal.
They did not agree with the online lessons in the pandemic
Jurnal Bihorean and Bihon reported in detail this case in which the investigation started after the management of a school in Bihor informed the Police that, “in September of 2021, the parents withdrew and prevented the four children from attending education courses generally mandatory”.
The parents explained to the investigators that during the pandemic they were opposed to teaching lessons in the online system and decided not to send their children to school because “they don’t agree with the use of the Internet, TV media channels.”
The mother and father of the four students decided to educate them at home, in the homeschooling system. Thus, they enrolled the children in an “academy” in the United States and took care of their education, for three hours a day, according to a flexible schedule and using Romanian textbooks bought from bookstores. This although, as the court in Alesd noted, the parents had no pedagogical or specialized training, and the US organization they chose is not accredited in Romania.
Homeschooling, not recognized in Romania
According to an address from March 2022 of the Bihor School Inspectorate, homeschooling is not a recognized form of education in Romania, and the courses taken in this way cannot be equated according to the national education, which stipulates the mandatory attendance of 10 classes.
However, there is the possibility that, under certain conditions, parents or legal guardians may opt for “family education”. Although not recognized, this system is accepted for health reasons (chronic illness, severe allergies), religious reasons or special beliefs, reasons related to artistic or sports performance activities, or in the case of children who are film, television or theater actors, shows an analysis of the pilicansanatos.ro website.
Under these conditions, the Criminal Code (art. 380 par. 1) shows that the act of the parent or the person to whom a minor has been entrusted, according to the law, and who, unjustifiably, withdraws or prevents him by any means from attending education courses generally mandatory, punishable by imprisonment from 3 months to one year or a fine.
Parents ‘did not show they understood the implications of the decision’
A psychological evaluation report carried out in this case recommended enrolling the children in the compulsory education system in order to respect their right to education. For three months, the whole family benefited from the advice of DGASPC Bihor specialists in order to re-enroll the little ones in school.
The Alesd Court sentenced the two husbands, citing the fact that they “did not assume any responsibility for committing the acts and did not show that they understood the implications of the decision taken, (…) an aspect that also results from the position expressed by the defendant (…) which he considered that the judicial procedure is a form of harassment and he wants to live in peace”.
Parents from Bihor convicted for withdrawing their children from school and enrolling them in homeschooling
Tags: Final sentence parents Bihor withdrew children state school homeschooling sentenced
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