Another Homeschool Tragedy in the Newsby Andrea Hermitt | More from this Blogger 10 Mar 2008 12:16 PM "Wasn't she homeschooled?" Shrieked Nancy Grace in a question as she covered the news story of a Texas girl who along with her boyfriend and other friends killed the girl's family members. The story truly is a tragedy. Apparently, the daughter met a guy at high school who her parents did not like. Her parents tried to break them up. They reportedly took the girls cell phone. It looks like the father hacked into the boyfriend's myspace page. They did not make the romance easy. The mother, and two younger brothers were killed in their sleep and the father barely escaped. The house was set on fire with the bodies inside and the girlfriend was later found hiding at the home of one of her accomplices. I have read and heard many reports of the story, but this was the first time I heard that the girl was home schooled. I guess Nancy Grace did some digging. The reporter in response mumbled, yes, in previously, but she was enrolled in school. "Oh", Nancy said. I have some questions of my own about case. Why was this 19 year old still in high school? Why are high schools more of a place to hook-up than a place of education. From what I can tell, I feel like this older man saw this very innocent young girl and decided to take advantage of her. (note: I have deleted my previous conclusion that the mom was too young to have a 16 year old daughter in the first place. While the mom was young, 20-21 is respectable age to have a child. The first three comments will explain the change.) I am definitely bracing myself for the onslaught of comments about inept homeschoolers and homeschool tragedies. My guess however is the problem came from child parents trying to raise more children. I can only imagine there were many hidden problems under the surface that had very little to do with homeschooling. Frankly, I am weary of the inability of people to separate homeschooling from dysfunction. Homeschooling happens in both functional and dysfunctional families, and is not the root cause of the dysfunction. Like wise dysfunction happens in both homeschooling and public school families and while it may affect the level of education, it also exists separately of it. *Have a question about homeschooling? Just ask. *Words a homeschooler Should Know Learn more about Andrea Hermitt  Andrea Hermitt is a native New Yorker currently residing in GA. She has been married for over 16 years and has two teenage children. Relevanthomeschooling tags User Comments  AcceptanceWithJoy (10) 10 Mar 2008 12:59 PMI too am tired of the mainstream media trying to create a link between family dysfunction and home schooling. But, I have to say that I strongly disagree with your assessment of the "problem." [the problem came from child parents trying to raise more children] She would have been 21 when she gave birth to her first child. When my mother was 21, she had 2 children. She had her third, and last, child when she was 24. Statistics from the CDC indicate that in 2000 the average age for a woman giving birth for the first time was 25, up from 21.4 in 1970. I don't know what the average age of a woman giving birth for the first time was in 1992. I suspect it was somewhere between 21 and 25. Whatever the case, this mother was not several standard deviations below the mean. She was an "average" mother. Twenty-one year olds are adults who can vote, enter a marriage contract, drive a car, join the military and die for our country... and have a child and successfully parent it. No way would I consider this woman a "child parent."  Tristi Pinkston (10839) 10 Mar 2008 02:41 PMYeah, I have to agree with both of you -- I had my first child when I was twenty, and I'm thirty-two now with four children. I don't consider it a problem for a twenty or twenty one year old to have a child. I agree with Andrea though in that the media needs to stop playing the home school card. You'll find dysfunction in any sort of family, and you can't say that all homeschooled children are weird any more than you can say all public schooled children are weird. Dysfunction can be found anywhere and the media needs to stop ferreting out these little details and making mountains out of molehills.  Andrea Hermitt (5512) 10 Mar 2008 04:09 PMYou know what... you guys are right... I did bad math and thought the mother was considerably younger.. I will point make a note of that in the article.  MomieTullottes (15) 10 Mar 2008 08:56 PMI also don't understand why the media does this. When a public school student does something horrible, they don't say "Oh, he went to public school. LOL I don't think the method of schooling is really that big of an issue. Other factors are likely more dominant and relevant. Community Tags child abuse, homeschool, home school Discuss this article
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