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On February 17, 2014, news reporter Breanne Palmerini of KJRH Tulsa, gave a slanderous report on homeschooling in Oklahoma based on some children who appear to be school-aged and unsupervised during school hours near some Section-8 housing (61st and Peoria) in Tulsa. The gist of Palmerini’s report is that these Oklahoma children are not being educated at all, and homeschooling is to blame.
Providing absolutely no proof, Palmerini claims that these Tulsa children call themselves homeschoolers in order to dodge truancy laws. Her report recklessly proposes stricter laws over all Oklahoma homeschoolers as a remedy to assure an education for these neglected children. The “experts” called on in Palmerini’s report include one poorly spoken ex home-school teacher turned Section-8 property manager, one government employed psychologist, and one neglected teen with his GED. Just six days earlier Palmarini could have researched this issue by directly addressing Oklahoma lawmakers and over one thousand Oklahoma homeschoolers who meet annually at Oklahoma’s Capitol to support the right of Oklahomans to home-school. The only “source” Palmarini cited in her report was a single website which she credits with her data on the number of homeschoolers in Oklahoma. Here is that website, , it is nothing more than an ad link.
Palmerini claims in her report that there are “no testing, no requirements, and no diplomas” for Oklahoma homeschoolers. What she actually means is that there are no state mandated tests or requirements and no state certified diplomas for homeschoolers, which is also true of many private schools in Oklahoma. Palmerini’s report falsely claims that no laws whatsoever apply to folks in Oklahoma who call themselves “homeschoolers” and yet neglect their children. At one point, her interviewee claims that “DHS cannot even enter the home” of a so-called homeschooler. This is also preposterously untrue.
The truth of the matter is that Oklahoma has very clear laws protecting the rights of parents to educate their own children. Oklahoma truancy laws do apply to all Oklahoma children no matter what type of education they are receiving. Oklahoma case law requires mandatory school days for all children. DHS certainly can enter any home where there is reasonable suspicion of abuse or neglect of a child. In other words, Oklahoma already has laws in place to protect neglected children. And, Palmerini’s entire report is based on lies.
This ridiculous leap from a group of neglected children near crime riddled Fairmont Terrace Section-8 apartments, to stricter laws governing all homeschooling families in Oklahoma, is so preposterous and so poorly supported that one can only suspect that it may be a pathetic effort to create a sympathetic ear for some group who has an agenda to limit or eliminate homeschooling altogether.
The danger in this report is that it does exactly what propaganda is designed to do. It steers the opinion of the populace in a direction to agree to allow fewer freedoms to parents, educators, and ultimately all Oklahomans. Unfortunately, most viewers of a five minute propaganda report, where neglected children are used for sensationalism, do not take the time to research existing Oklahoma laws that protect Oklahoma’s children from neglect. They do not have the time to discover that some parents in this dangerous neighborhood choose to keep their children at home because there are no buses provided to the local elementary school and it is not safe for their children to walk there. They do not know that many children in Oklahoma receive state funded online “homeschooling” which is nothing more than another horribly inadequate public education masquerading as a home-school education and scandalizing and discrediting homeschoolers everywhere.
Viewers also do not consider that any legislation limiting the rights of home-schools, would most certainly limit the rights of all other private schools in Oklahoma. And, it never dawns on them, that when the state is the only entity permitted to educate our children, we are no longer a free society.
It seems that Breanne Palmerini and the management at KJRH have some incentive to use their public influence to restrict the freedoms of Oklahomans. They are deceitfully and unscrupulously attempting to package this political propaganda as a way to save neglected children.
It should be noted that the media in Oklahoma is untested and unregulated by the state. No one is allowed to enter a news station and investigate whether their reporting is honest, accurate, or simply politically motivated and politically funded propaganda. In fact, there are no laws whatsoever governing the actions of the media no matter how they might damage the future of Oklahomans.
I hope all freedom loving Oklahomans will see through KJRH and take a direct stand against their biased reporting.
To let KJRH know how you feel about their propaganda reporting leave a comment on their Facebook page here:
For more information on laws governing homeschooling in Oklahoma follow this link:
To see Breanne Palmarini’s propaganda report mentioned above:
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