The Sinister Side of Homeschooling
Sep 20, 2013 5:45 AM EDT
Because the practice is almost entirely unregulated in much of the country, parents are able to hide their crimes—sometimes fatally. Michelle Goldberg investigates.
On September 9, the parents of Hana Williams, an Ethiopian teenager living in the state of Washington, were convicted of killing her.
During the last year of her life, court documents show, she had lost almost 30 pounds as she was beaten, denied food, forced to sleep in a barn, and given cold outdoor showers with a garden hose. Much of the time she was kept barefoot, although she was allowed shoes if there was snow on the ground. Sometimes she was given nothing but a towel to wear.
If Williams had been in school, someone might have noticed that she was underdressed and emaciated. But she was homeschooled, and so her parents, fundamentalist Christians in thrall to a harsh disciplinary philosophy, had complete privacy to punish her as they saw fit.
She died naked, face down in the mud in their backyard.
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