http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=59277

WND Exclusive POLICE STATE, USA
Woman abandons home to escape public schools
Judge ordered homeschooler to enroll kids or lose custody
December 20, 2007

By Bob Unruh
2007 WorldNetDaily.com

A Utah woman who was ordered by a juvenile court judge to enroll her children
in public school or lose custody of them has abandoned her home, furniture and
other possessions to escape the order.

Denise Mafi, a nine-year veteran of homeschooling, has confirmed to WND she
and her children packed up their essentials _ clothes and homeschool materials
_ and fled Utah over the weekend, spending more than 50 hours on a bus trip to
an undisclosed part of the country.

There she has obtained an empty home and is spending the Christmas break
trying to find beds for her children and herself. After the New Year she will
involve the children in a local homeschooling process.

"We're shampooing carpets right now. We have no furniture. We have no beds,"
she said. "But my kids are not going to public school. They are not going
where Jesus isn't welcome."

Her home, furniture and other possessions left behind in Utah? "I'm not going
back unless the judge removes the threat of arrest," she said. "I'll fight for
the cause but I'm not going to be a martyr."

The case erupted for Mafi because of an apparent paperwork glitch that could
be the fault of her local school district. Now Utah home school officials say
they have asked the state Legislature to review actions by the judge, whose
office has declined comment to WND.

The confrontation developed after Mafi, still married but separated from her
husband, already had begun her homeschooling plan for the 2007-2008 year, for
which she had received a district exemption as required in Utah. She was told
she was being accused of four counts of failing to abide by the state's
compulsory education law, with a penalty of up to six months in jail on each
count, because the district alleged she had not submitted a required affidavit
for the long-completed 2006-2007 school year.

Counseled by a public defender, she thought she was meeting the court's
demands earlier when she enrolled her two youngest children in classes in Utah
and put her two older children in an online curriculum connected to the public
school. However, she soon learned otherwise.

"Well everything fell apart in court today. I had to enroll my two oldest in
public school. _ If I didn't the judge said I would lose custody of my
children. He threw out the plea and we go to trial on January 9th. I have NO
CHANCE with this judge. He will find me guilty. He already has. So I will
probably be spending some time in jail. Please pray for my children," she
noted in an online forum connected to a "Five In A Row" homeschool curriculum
she had used when her children were younger.

Scott Johansen
http://www.wnd.com/images2/sjohan.jpg