A journey from Germany to Tennessee

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Tuesday, November 5th.

Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: an unusual political asylum claim. The central issue is educational freedom.

Homeschooling is legal in many countries, but some governments require public school attendance. And parents can face fines or even lose custody if they don’t comply.

REICHARD: The U.S. has provided asylum for some of those families, but many are living in limbo, as asylum requests must be renewed each year.

WORLD has been following one family’s case for several years, reporting last year that the US government had threatened to deport them, but last week they were granted asylum for another year.

Reporter Mary Muncy brings us their story.

UWE ROMEIKE: Alright, let’s do some math.

MARY MUNCY: Uwe Romeike is helping his 11-year-old daughter Rebecca with her math. They live in east Tennessee… and Rebecca is the youngest of seven… Everyone but she and her sister Sarah have graduated.

They’ve been in Tennessee for 16 years… checking in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement every year… just like they’re supposed to.

HANNE: You have no legal rights and no way to become a citizen here. It’s very hard.

Every year, it’s an open question whether their asylum status will be reapproved—allowing them to stay in the US. If the request is denied, they would have to take Rebecca and Sarah back to Germany… where the government has been cracking down on homeschooling even more than when they left… and it was bad then.

HANNE: Daniel was very, very much bullied in school.

Daniel is their oldest, and the first one to go to German public school.

HANNE: He changed into an introvert in one year. And our oldest two, they're one year apart. So when, it was Lydia's turn. When she came to school, I was scared that she would change too.

They also learned that the curriculum did not line up with the Romeikes Christian beliefs about sexuality and marriage.

HANNE: Every day when I brought Lydia to school, I cried out to the Lord, and I really cried, and I said, ‘Lord, you have to change something, you know, change something.’

A year later, they heard about homeschooling. It’s illegal in Germany… but other homeschooling families said they had gotten some nuisance fines, but nothing much more than that.

So, they started in the fall of 2006. Around that time, they went to a conference of homeschooling families. They were gone for about a week.

The morning after they got back, the doorbell rang.

UWE: Our doorbell would never ring in the morning, so we looked outside, because it didn't stop ringing.

They saw a couple cars out front… and a police officer, yelling. They talked to him from upstairs… trying to stall long enough to get the kids ready to go to school.

When the officer threatened to break into their home, the couple let him in and brought their now three school-aged children downstairs with their backpacks—still full of books from the conference.

But Hanne knew the principal… and knew he would be curious about what they were teaching their kids and might look at their curriculum while they were at school… she also worried that he would use that information to make up reasons why they couldn’t teach their kids at home.

So she tried removing the books in chaos before they left.

HANNE: And a policeman was screaming at me and cursing at me and say they are not going with empty bags.

Hanne tried to explain that they didn’t have any school books except their home school material.

HANNE: So he was pulling on one side, and I tried to keep it. And so that's when, when our children started to cry, because it is scary. The whole thing was so scary.

The officer told her kids to get into his van and he took them to school… school books still in their bags.

Hanne picked them up a few hours later and went to her sister’s house.

It was a Friday… so they had the weekend to figure out what they would do. The couple was sure the police would come back on Monday.

HANNE: I thought, wow, during the weekend, I will just disappear, maybe Switzerland.

They called other homeschoolers and they said they shouldn’t do that… otherwise, the authorities would use the same tactics on their families too.

The Romeikes learned that the police weren’t allowed to enter their house without a warrant.

So, when Monday morning came, some of the homeschool families, people from their church, and their friends came to their house as witnesses.

UWE: They came again, and we had all kinds of friends there, and we actually were just witnessing, because they were all talking to the police and having discussions and talking in support of us and questioned them— what they were doing.

After about 40 minutes, the police left… and they didn’t come back. They thought maybe that was the end of it. But then the fines began.

UWE: They started with fining notices for each parent and each child. So that was that 600 per day, and they went on for months.

They ended up with about $12,000 in fines and they had to go to court because they couldn’t pay them.

Then, a year after they started homeschooling… the government proposed a new law that would allow the state to take custody of their children without a court order if they didn’t send them to school.

It was the final straw, and they needed to leave… but they didn’t have anywhere to go.

UWE: Then we got a phone call from an attorney from HSLDA.

That’s the Home School Legal Defense Association.

UWE: We told him our situation, and he brought up the option, or the offer, actually, to support us to come here and give us legal support to apply for political asylum.

They decided to do it, and two years after they started homeschooling, they were on their way to Tennessee.

UWE: We came in August, and within a week, we had a house to move in.

HANNE: The people were so nice and helpful and open arms, you know, and shared and gave us so much. We came with only seven suitcases with some material and clothes and toys.

Since then, they’ve built a life for themselves and continued homeschooling their children… checking in annually with the US government.

A little over a year ago, it looked like they were going to have to return to Germany…then two weeks ago, they got word they could stay…at least another year.

UWE: Sarah!

So, the Romeikes are continuing to homeschool their last two children. Hanne says they’re not sure what will happen next year or the year after that… and they don’t have anything in Germany to go back to if they do have to leave.

HANNE: It feels scary, but, but you have no security either. We don't know what brings tomorrow. Yeah, we have no safety, you know, in worldly meaning. But the Lord covered us with peace and and he assured us, you know, he brought us here and now.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Mary Muncy.

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