Under fire, Democrat gives up quest for government-approved parents

Capri Cafaro YouTube screenshot/Ohio Senate Democratic Caucus

Ohio state senator Capri Cafaro, a Democrat, has withdrawn a controversial homeschooling bill that would have required social workers to conduct a background check on all parents who decide to homeschool their children.

Cafaro withdrew Senate Bill 248, also known as “Teddy’s Law,” late Thursday in the face of intense and mounting opposition, reports EAGnews.org.

“SB 248 was never meant to be a policy debate about educating children in the home,” Cafaro explained. “It was meant to address weaknesses in the law pertaining to child protection. Unfortunately, the true intent of the bill to curtail child abuse has been eclipsed by the issue of home schooling.”

The namesake of Cafaro’s ”Teddy’s Law” is Theodore “Teddy” Foltz-Tedesco, a 14-year-old boy who was tortured and beaten to death by a Zaryl G. Bush, man who was dating his mother. The mother, Shain Widdersheim, had removed her son from school after teachers began to suspect abuse. She said she would homeschool him.

Both Bush and Widdersheim are now in prison.

However, because homeschooling was an utterly tangential element in the sick and heinous abuse and murder a teenage boy, the meddlesome Democratic state senator crafted a bill requiring invasive state investigations into the lives of every parent or legal guardian seeking to remove children from public schools...  (more...)

Under fire, daddy's girl Democrat gives up quest for government-approved parents