Prequel: The Story of Rose: Keeping It In The Family

Chapter Four: No Home School Teachers Allowed

Chapter Four:

Rose's POV
The last few days, The teacher started getting worried about how skinny I was getting. She asked if I was eating at home, I couldn't tell her that it was my punishment because serving kids no food was no punishment.

When I told my mom my teacher was getting suspicious, she made me eat food again other than water and bread when I got home. She explained to me I was not going back to school anymore and that I will be home schooled. She told me the reason she hasn't been feeding me big meals because my parents couldn't afford it right now so that's why she has to give me bread and water to help me survive. I told her that it wasn't fair that I had to miss school and she went to raise her hand at me for talking back I flinch when she slapped me across the face and I burst into tears.

Karen: did I ask you to talk back, be fucking grateful you're getting a meal today

I nodded at my mom and sat in silence and ate. It was not fair, I was starting to like the school and the teachers because they actually cared about me. But of course my parents didn't want to get caught and now we have to try new things. We couldn't move right now because it's barely been a month since my dad started working. So at the end of the week once the papers went through for my home schooling I was going back to home schooling.

Now that I'm homeschooled my parents didn't have to worry about teachers getting suspicious about me. I didn't like it much because I was home everyday under their wing worried I might get more beatings from one of them. My dad normally does the beatings, so I was more afraid of him because he was stronger. My mom just spanks me but she spanks me for every wrong thing I do. I could never catch a break from her. So when they're at work I'm very grateful to get away from them.

I was too young to realize it, but that decision sentenced me to a prison I'd never escape. I could never leave home for school, where an outsider could notice my condition and get help. My dysfunctional and emotionally abusive home was my school, and vice versa. Most, if not all, of my memories of home are of constant chaos and screaming matches between any two or more people at a time. Every time I could, I would hide in my bedroom, lock my door, and cry in the closet until I couldn't breathe. I feel physically sick whenever I think of going back there.

Nevertheless, my parents still worried about CPS taking me away. I was told to hide anytime the doorbell rang, and I was not allowed to go outside or leave the house until after around 3 P.M., or I would get beat, lest curious outsiders ask if I were in school. Secretly I prayed that someone, anyone with authority would save me.

Nobody ever came.

These measures, at the very minimum, are necessary where they are not already in place:

1. Require more strict enforcement of curriculum requirements. Parents should annually submit their curriculum for approval, detailing specific subjects and textbooks, to ensure that their plans align with minimum standards. Parents must also comply with regular standardized tests administered by a qualified third party. If students show substandard progress, they must receive further evaluation and assistance; parents may face temporary probation, or lose their license to homeschool if they refuse to comply.

2. Require comprehensive criminal background checks of anyone requesting permission to homeschool. If one or both parents have a criminal record (e.g., felonies, substance abuse, or any child abuse/neglect), their files must undergo further review and authorities might visit the home to make sure homeschooling is not being used as a means to hide abuse or dysfunction.

3. Require that professionals privately interview children on a regular basis about their experiences and about whether they consent to homeschooling. Parents don't have to live with the consequences of homeschooling for the rest of their lives, but their children do. What I ached for most as a child and adolescent was a chance to privately go to a third party and tell them how trapped I felt and how I wanted to go to school outside the house like a normal child. Professionals must look for explicit, affirmative, and voluntary verbal consent from the child, following the same standards we expect of sexual consent.