Nina Bishop is asking parents across the country to join her in seeking redress from schools that bully children when parents opt them out of oppressive state testing. Drawing on her own experience of the difficulties encountered when opting children out of the CSAP, a Colorado state test instituted in compliance with the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation, Bishop seeks protection under the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment of the U. S. Constitution.
“I want parents to tell their stories,” says Bishop, whose own children were denied school services and even not allowed to re-enroll in a charter school. She points to other children denied access to school on testing days, participation on sports teams, and in other school clubs and events. In some cases children have been denied grade advancement, have been threatened with expulsion .
“In my own case, my son was made so nervous by testing that he had to be put on Xanax. I moved my son to a charter school, thinking they would better acknowledge student needs,” says Bishop. “Instead, when I refused to allow my son to be tested, they denied him enrollment the next year.”
Bishop would like to hear from parents whose children have been bullied by schools because of the testing issue. “What I need from parents is their story story in a letter sent through the US Postal Service.”
Bishop advises: Try to be brief and factual, as free from emotion as possible. Stick to the topic of parents having the right to choose to allow testing or not to allow testing—in the best interest of their children.
The basis of a complaint filed with the ACLU will be parents’ right to guide their children’s education as “unwritten liberty” protected by the Due Process Clause of the 14th amendment and supported by the US Supreme Court.
Bishop present these letters to the ACLU. She hopes to show a broad spectrum of concern. Every parent voice is important.
Please include the following information:
• Name of school/district where infraction occurred
• Copies of supporting docs, e.g. threatening letters
• Permission/request to include the parent in the joint complaint to ACLU
• Signature
Send this to:
Nina Bishop
3065 Windward Way
Colorado Springs, CO 80917
Questions: 719-233-1508- Mountain Standard Time Zone
Note: Parental rights are broadly protected by Supreme Court decisions (Meyer and Pierce), especially in the area of education. The Supreme Court has repeatedly held that parents posses the “fundamental right” to “direct the upbringing and education of their children.” Furthermore, the Court declared that “the child is not the mere creature of the State: those who nurture him and direct his destiny have the right coupled with the high duty to recognize and prepare him for additional obligations.” (Pierce v. Society of Sisters, 268 U.S. 510, 534-35)
The Supreme Court criticized a state legislature for trying to interfere “with the power of parents to control the education of their own.” (Meyer v. Nebraska, 262 U.S. 390, 402.) In Meyer, the Supreme Court held that the right of parents to raise their children free from unreasonable state interferences is one of the unwritten “liberties” protected by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. (262 U.S. 399).
In recognition of both the right and responsibility of parents to control their children’s education, the Court has stated,
“It is cardinal with us that the custody, care and nurture of the child reside first in the parents, whose primary function and freedom include preparation for the obligations the State can neither supply nor hinder.” (Prince v.Massachusetts, 321 U.S. 158)
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