Story Archive

Home Truancy

Tori McIntyre ran away to school. Yes, to school: The 17-year-old left home and escaped to an El Paso, Texas, public school. She and her siblings were registered as being home-schooled, but her uncle Tracy said he had never seen them studying, only singing and playing instruments. One of them, he claimed, even said there was no need to study because the Rapture was coming. When the school district investigated McIntyre’s parents sued, alleging that investigating their home-schooling choices violated their rights under the U.S. Constitution and the Texas Education Code. Texas “already has some of country’s laxest laws” on home schooling, the Washington Post says, but the state requires a “bona fide” education — without defining what that is. Truancy charges were filed and dropped, but the parents’ lawsuit is now before the Texas Supreme Court; it may affect the independence of home-schooling parents across the state. (AC/Washington Post, Austin American-Statesman) ...Is the Rapture so soon and certain that you don’t need an education, but not so soon and certain that you need to sue?