Image Credit: chestnutridgeacademy & tncourts.gov
The Tennessee Conservative [By Paula Gomes] –
A Coffee County Judge with a reputation for being biased against homeschooling trampled on parental rights on Tuesday by ordering a homeschooled student back to public school.
General Sessions and Juvenile Court Judge Gerald Ewell, Jr. told the student that he could send her away and that “homeschool is no school.”
In a recording from the Patriot Punk Network, the judge can be heard saying, “When there’s a truancy charge pending, state law says that I have to approve homeschool.”
Ewell Jr. then says, “And I don’t do it. You’ve got to go to a public school. Homeschool is no school.”
Ewell, Jr. then directed the student to be present at her former school the next day. “If you’re not there tomorrow, I’m going to send you… send you off is exactly what we’re going to do.”
He then told the parents that they could be found guilty of violating the Compulsory School Attendance Law.
“If you want to wait and see how that affects other people, you have about eight of them on the docket today,” Ewell Jr. said. “So if you wanna see if they go to jail, or don’t go to jail, or how that happens, you can certainly do that.”
Keith Cornelius, Attendance Supervisor for Coffee County Schools, told the parents that their daughter would be counted absent for not being at school while the case was dealt with and that she could accrue even more charges.
The student’s parents dispute the truancy charges which allege that she missed 11 days out of the 180 that Tennessee students are required to attend. Her parents say they have doctor’s notes for the missed days, but some of the absences were for days that the student was actually in school. In addition, the parents were not made aware of the truancy charges until after the Category IV non-public school that they enrolled their daughter in asked the high school for the student’s records.
The parents enrolled their child in Chestnut Ridge Academy, a Category IV non-public school, one of the legally recognized methods of homeschooling in the state. Under this category, students are technically considered to be privately schooled under state law.
The parents live in Senator Janice Bowling’s district, who spoke to both Judge Ewell, Jr. and the Coffee County sheriff. She was told that the charges against the student would be dismissed, thereby releasing the records to Chestnut Ridge Academy. However, according to sources, Terry Hershman, assistant District Attorney for Coffee County, is refusing to drop the charges and is insisting on another court date on August 22nd.
Judges across Tennessee appear to be “cracking down” on truancy and as we have previously reported, the Tennessee Department of Education uses chronic absenteeism for its plan to meet the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requirement for a nonacademic measure of school quality. This means districts lose money if their Chronically Out of School scores get too low.
Coffee County’s Chronically Out of School (COS) score is a 3.5 out of 4, a high score that shows that the county actually does not have much of a problem with truancy. In 2021, the COS rate was a mere 1.1% of all students. That number did jump up to 12.9% in 2022.
Meanwhile, state testing for 2023 shows that less than 40% of students in Coffee County public schools met or exceeded educational expectations in English Lanuage Arts, Social Studies and Science, with less than 30% meeting or exceeding benchmarks in Math.
An interesting part of Tennessee’s history regarding homeschooling is that Ewell Jr.’s father sided with homeschoolers back in the early days of homeschooling in Tennessee.
The Coffee County School Board voted to criminally prosecute a family for homeschooling under the Compulsory Attendance Law in 1984. The parents were arrested and required to post a $1,000 bond. However, Judge Ewell ruled that home instruction complied with Tennessee Compulsory Attendance Law and dismissed the charges.
Listen to the recording from Patriot Punk Network below:
About the Author: Paula Gomes is a Tennessee resident and reporter for The Tennessee Conservative. You can reach Paula at paula@tennesseeconservativenews.com.
21 Responses
“This means districts lose money if their Chronically Out of School scores get too low.”
Now you are striking at the root. And thank you for pointing out the horrible academic performance of the system (typical of many TN districts) the judge is forcing this family back into. The government school system has lost a ton of “customers” even though threatened with jail time and fines. I personally know a family that has enrolled in a cat IV school, transferring out of Washington Co. schools with a potentially similar issue. The district is not doing their job and sending transcripts to the private school. They seem to be holding these children hostage and the judges are conspiring to “make examples” of those choosing to leave the failing system.
Have them contact me if they’d like coverage.
paula@tennesseeconservativenews.com
You have got to be kidding me. You are stomping all over Parents rights.
“Homeschool is no school.” Unbelievable. Judge Ewell is ignorant and biased when it comes to homeschooling as a legitimate educational option. It is not only a constitutional right, but the stats are clearly in favor of homeschooling. https://www.nheri.org/research-facts-on-homeschooling/
I wonder how many public school teachers could pass a proficiency test.
If there was any question of an “agenda” for your children, this proves it. They want to brainwash the kids with racial division, self hate, and confuse them sexually so they turn out to be dunderheads with no critical thinking skills and to just blindly follow the cult of liberalism. Test scores have been getting worse every year since the inception of teacher’s union and nobody talks about that. Kids are not being taught basic, proper skills in order to flourish and become successful, instead they are being taught to rely on Gov’t, that Gov’t is their parent and only THEY understand what these kids are going through and NOT the parents. Once again, the libs are using their “divide and conquer” in full force going at the heart of the nuclear family, a threat to them as they see it. This is just sick. Threatening parents who see how awful these schools are with jail time is beyond the pale and clearly shows how desperate they are since more parents are catching on to what is really going on in these indoctrination camps. I never thought I would see such an attack on human rights in this country as I am seeing now and they are hitting us from every side ever since Covid, they just keep threatening everyone with losing your job, your social status, right to medical treatment IF you do not comply with their wishes. We are in deep trouble folks unless people start rejecting them “en masse”, but I fear things have not gotten bad enough yet to snap folks into what is really at stake here. The complete loss of freedom as we know it.
That judge needs to be fired!! Dems claim no one is above the law, HAA; yeah no one except them when it suits their agenda.
I’ll bet that guy is a Dem.
They need to abolish “Non-partisan” races – there isn’t such a thing.
Another sick fascist pedophile judge. The citizens of coffee co should address that.
Take it to a higher court and got it overturned and then vote him out of office.
Oh good grief! Of all the problems we have in this country, we’re going to focus on truancy?
This “judge” needs to be removed from office immediately. His arrogance is beyond belief as is that of the “school system” that forces children into a failing system so they can maintain their power. There has to be some mechanism by which he can be removed. If a “judge can insert his own bias into the sorry education system we have now, all the children are going to learn is that we also have a sorry system for putting “judges” in power and stupidity reigns.
This s called Judge should be removed from office. It’s all about the money and indoctrination in public schools. Time for a Class action suit. This is America not WW2 Germany. Take back America.
Lucifer’s own dishonborable black robed puke, forcing kids into lucifers failed pubic ejikashun system.
Can you clarify who is the assistant district attorney who is refusing to drop the case? Terry Hershman is a county commissioner. I have never heard he’s an assistant da. Unless you’re referring to someone else with an identical name?
So… I know all of these….good ole boys… holier then thou Christian’s …( I love Jesus as well)…
Let’s just say this…coffee county is ran by pure evil… old Ewell himself just took part of an inheritance that lawfully belong to a friend… he told her either settle or he would hold it up in court until it broke her and everything was spent… her mothers inheritance…this is of course when he was CITY judge…
Did I mention he help my dads “wife” rewrite his will 2 weeks before he passed??? Once again weaving webs were he has no business…
Coffee county Tennessee is ran by evil.. no joke…not kidding…
The justice system, the education system, every crooked cop , lawer , D/A thinks they are above the law here… I was even told one time in court
“We make our own laws here”
Guess I better shut up…
I dont want the rest of my dead.
“Coffee county is ran by evil ”
None of you are Christian….
Christians don’t go into the world to spread more suffering.. evil does that.. and isn’t that their job 5 days a week??
I pray to God ..one day it all comes down on them…
Please God make this evil stop.
,
I know all too well about judges making up laws on the spot to target homeschoolers.
It’s going to just get worse from here.
We’re on the fast track to the New World Order where none of us will have any rights or choice in how we raise our children.
I’m afraid it’s too little too late.
This clown judge is what passes for a republican in Tennessee??? How pathetic you people are… Kick his ass out….
Make tar and feathering great again.
“In a recording from the Patriot Punk Network, the judge can be heard saying, “When there’s a truancy charge pending, state law says that I have to approve homeschool.”
Ewell Jr. then says, “And I don’t do it. You’ve got to go to a public school. Homeschool is no school.” ”
The judge is thumbing his nose at the law and declaring himself above it.
He should be removed from the bench.
This family needs to contact HSLDA to get home school legal help and this Judge needs to be dismissed. I home schooled four of my children and this Judge is acting as a tyrant.