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In 2014, Barbara Knox, a pediatrician specializing in research on child abuse, published “Child Torture as a Form of Child Abuse” in the Journal of Child & Adolescent Trauma. Knox looked at cases of child abuse so severe that they could be considered child torture.
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Knox found that 29% of school-age children in her study were not allowed to attend school” and that “an additional 47% who had been enrolled in school were removed under the auspices of ‘homeschooling.’”
Knox described how homeschooling exacerbated things:
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Knox described how homeschooling exacerbated things:
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“This ‘homeschooling’ appears to have been designed to further isolate the child and typically occurred after closure of a previously opened CPS case. Review of these cases found no true educational efforts were provided to the homeschooled children. ...
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... Their isolation was accompanied by an escalation of physically abusive events.”
At CRHE, we have spoken with abuse survivors who were withdrawn from school to be homeschooled in a deliberate effort to hide their abuse.
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At CRHE, we have spoken with abuse survivors who were withdrawn from school to be homeschooled in a deliberate effort to hide their abuse.
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Others, such as the Hart children, did not survive their abuse. The Harts’ parents withdrew them from school following the closure of a child protective services case and spent years starving and torturing them before ultimately murdering them.
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As we noted in our previous two segments in this series, we believe homeschooling should only be used to provide children with an education, and not to hide abuse or to exploit loopholes in compulsory education laws.
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Currently, homeschooling laws do little to prevent such abuse. Until this changes, Knox’s study suggests that homeschooling will remain the most commonly used educational method of parents who commit child torture.
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You can read Knox’s full study here: https://www.rimaregas.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Knox-Torture-as-a-Form-of-Child-Abuse-article.pdf
