An “Eye on America” segment in the October 13 edition of The CBS Evening News suggested that a tragic murder-suicide in a rural county two years ago was somehow evidence of the “dark side” of home-schooling.
Correspondent Vince Gonzales portrayed home education as a haven for potential abusers and worse. In fact, the Warren family — whose 14-year-old son killed two teen-aged siblings and then himself in July 2001 — had chosen to duck North Carolina's homeschool law. CBS News could show no evidence that the Warrens were typical of homeschoolers, or that this senseless tragedy would have been averted by more educational regulations.
North Carolinians for Home Education (NCHE) notes that the CBS special failed to mention that in North Carolina, homeschooling has grown from a few dozen families in 1984 to nearly 29,000 this year. There are other facts which CBS failed to mention; for example, there were already numerous child protection laws and regulations on the books that state agencies could have used to safeguard the Warren children. Social Services had not only contacted the family on numerous occasions — they had already removed the children from the home for a time.
“In spite of all the laws and agencies in place and involved, the system was still not able to prevent the deaths of these children,” says NCHE.
The Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) reports that “to any fair-minded reader the story leaves the impression that homeschooling equals child abuse.” J. Michael Smith HSLDA President issued a statement saying, “We are outraged that CBS would ignore the obvious facts and draw the erroneous conclusion that homeschoolers need to be strictly regulated. The story is a shameless attempt to smear an entire community of committed, dedicated parents.”
The CBS attack on homeschooling delivered a second segment yesterday with a similar piece entitled “Home Schooling Nightmares.” Smith remarked, “The real story is CBS's bias against homeschooling and it is using this distorted story to encourage the regulation of homeschoolers.”
NCHE suggests complaints to the program's sponsors.
See the latest biased CBS piece from
October 14, 2003.
(This update courtesy of LifeSiteNews.com.)
