The Home School Legal Defense Association, which defended the family, announced the January 26 decision by Judge Lawrence Burman in Memphis, Tenn.
“This decision finally recognizes that German home-schoolers are a specific social group that is being persecuted by a Western democracy,” said Mike Donnelly, an attorney and director of international relations for the Purcellville, Virginia-based association.
Uwe and Hannelore Romeike and their five children left Bissingen an der Teck, Germany, in August 2008 to live in Morristown, Tenn.
Lutz Gorgens, German consul general for the Southeast United States, told the Associated Press news agency that Germany’s mandatory policy on school attendance seeks to give all children a high standard of education. “Parents may choose between public, private, and religious schools, including those with alternative curricula like Waldorf or Montessori schools,” said Gorgens.”
