Psychiatry used against political dissenter in Germany

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Melissa Busekos is a healthy 15-year-old homeschooler in Germany. Homeschooling is illegal in Germany. To force her to comply with the forced schooling law, the German government has convinced doctors at the Klinik Nürnberg to diagnose her with "School Phobia" and to incarcerate her at their facility away from her parents until she learns to love public school.

Psychiatrists are being used in Germany as a tool of the government and the teacher´s union.

Her family is absolutely distraught.

Please take a moment to e-mail the Klinik Nürnberg to express your outrage.

Calling the Klinik Nürnberg from the USA: 011-49 0911 398 - 2970 or 3870,
email:
KJP_B@klinikum-nürnberg.de; axel.froelich@klinikum-nürnberg.de

Thank you,
Carol

How can they incarcerate someone because of "school phobia"? What kind of diagnosis is that? I wish Melissa the best but I can't quite understand the debate. If she is 15 years old how much school can she have left anyway. Can't she take a test to prove she already knows what they would have taught her in school? In the U.S., you can get a GED (General Equivalent Degree) and go to work at 16 if you get your parents to sign for it.

Gary

To me "School Phobia" sounds like a trumped-up psychiatric condition that was created to strike terror into us homeschoolers here in Germany.
And even if such a condition existed, how could something so benign get a child police-escorted into a mental ward?
The problem with Melissa is that she really WANTS to finish her high school studies. She just found that she could not learn Latin and math in a noisy school environment and wanted permission for her parents to tutor her in these subjects at home.
IMHO the government wants to protect teacher´s job at any cost and wants to crush the growing homeschool movement here in Germany at any cost.
I am scared my children will be next.
Please take a moment to contact the authorities in Germany and express your outrage. I do not think it is as effective to call the German embassies in the US. They do not pass the message on.

Carol

A lot of people have called the clinic in Nurenmberg where Melissa is being held against her will. They have expressed their outrage.

The psychiatrist has labelled ALL the people who have called "paedophiles".

That means to protect himself from dissent, to shield himself from hearing anyone disagree with him he is further abusing his authority by using his credentials to label any naysayers as people who should also be locked up in psychiatric prison.

This is a horrible situation in Germany. If we try to do what is best for our children they take our children away from us on the trumped up diagnosis of "School Phobia". If we complain then, suddenly, and just based on the fact that we dare to object to what a psychiatrist has done, we are labelled "paedophiles".

Please call your nearest German embassy and complain. Please raise your voice.

Carol Wyper

OK, time for some facts in the matter.

Home schooling is not banned in Germany. You can home school your child if you have teaching qualifications recognised in Germany. The Germans value their education system and have strict ways of evaluating students - and teachers - at every step of the way.
Letting just anybody teach students at home makes it impossible to evaluate them fairly, and puts an intolerable burden on the school authorities.

I find it significant that a google search on this girl's name turns up an article on a right-wing / religious website worldnetdaily.com.

I also copy a comment from a homeschool blog that had an entry on the girl's case:

Unfortunately, what you are intentionally leaving out is that Melissa was NOT attending any sort of school. She was refusing to attend school, and had failed the 7th grade. This is why she was expelled in the first place. It is very interesting to me how you are intentionally leaving out some major points in this case. For those reading, if you learn more about this case, family and child, you will see that there is much more to the situation than you are being told. It is not a case of a perfectly normal family just trying to homeschool their child, and having their child ripped away from them.

My two cents to end:
Home schoolers are for the most part religious zealots who don't like the fact that German education doesn't teach the creation myth or "intelligent design" or other fairy tales forced on students in some parts of the Benighted States of America.

Doesn't every child have school phobia??

Homeschooling is banned in Germany no matter how qualified you are.
The German educational system is a joke as proven by the PISA study.
And, even if it were not, parents are responsible for raising their children.
Government schools here only create a lot of unemployed people.
But even if they did not, parents do not need a dictator raising their children for them.
It is true that a lot of religious homeschoolers do not like evolution, but that has not stopped their children from being productive, successful citizens.
I do not need my "children evaluated fairly". I need to prepare my children for college and to be successful citizens. My 13 and 14 year old already have earned college credits. There is no school that could have achieved that for them by "evaluating" them.
I know there are lots of good reasons to have dictatorships. Freedom for families is messy. Stalin, ho-ch-min, Hitler, every dictator wanted to keep families busy and apart from each other.

But we do not want a dictatorship here in Germany. We want happy families who have the right to choose the education they feel is best for their children. Because families base that decision on love.

Please refer to www.gfoh.blogspot.com for a more indepth analysis.

Finally, let us talk about the abuse of psychiatry against Melissa Busekros. The psychiatrist, Dr. Schanda's report is, IMHO, an abuse of psychiatry. He used the fact that she did not accept the food they offered her when she arrived against her (she had just eaten breakfast.) He used the fact that she "seemed unhappy" against her (she had just been arrested by 15 policemen.)
You need to save your hero-worship of psychiatrists for a better subject. Dr. Schanda wrote a report after a one-hour examination that is not defensible.

Please join our boycott of German products until Germany stops using psychiatry as a weapon against homeschoolers!

The PISA study was flawed, everyone knows that.

If you're a teacher, you can homeschool your kid. Nobody does though, because they're not American religious wingnuts.

Government schools create a lot of unemployed people? Whaaa?

Your drivel about dictatorships is such a joke.

If you want to homeschool your kid, go to the States.

I think people should have the right to choose what they want for there children.

I remember in school i learned alot of compleatly pointless information. Aswell as alot of American history. I probably know about asmuch as if i were american. Now if i had children i'd rather they home school for a few reason's. the first being that what they'd learn wouldnt be pointless. Aswell as with the sensless and extreme childhood violence and bullying rampent today i'd feel they were saffer. Nothing religously modivated.

And i wouldnt want a government telling me what was best for them or saying that wouldnt be possible.

As for the qualification in germany. I dont know what gose on there as i'm not german and i've never taken an interest in their politics. But what i do know is teachers dont teach. They recite from text on a large basis. A parent with the time and will is as capable IMO.

In the UK, you don't even need to be a teacher to home-school. Your children are evaluated to make sure they are attaining acepted standards of education but parents don't actually have to allow assessors into their homes... which makes a mockery of assuring kids are attaining standards.

My kids go to school. They have not suffered from it; they are happy, well-balanced kids who enjoy learning. They are also currently achieving standards of education a year at least above their age. This is not a dictatorship; nor is it religeon-based education. I reject your insinuation that state schools are based on a dictatorhsip by their nature. They are not.

Schools offer a social structure where children can learn alongside others. Not just academic education; but social education. Many many studies show that children benefit far more from the interaction with others they get from school than from lives spent without peer interaction.

So far, I have found no evidence in the links you post to persuade me of your argument. Nor have I found anything giving an independant view of Melissa's story.

You say you need your children to be prepared for college - another educational institution. Why? Why is one so much more 'right' than another??