Wesley, they were fundamentalists, but much more moderate ones than that attorney. I had been casually acquatinted with them for a few years prior to being taken to court for home schooling my son. But I harbour no illusions about the reason they helped me to the extent they did. They knew that my case had the potential to set a dangerous precedent for all home schoolers.

Having said that, they were/are lovely people, for whom I have a tremendous amount of respect.

Casual Observer, jeffp is correct. There were no rules in that county at the time that specified who could home school and who could not. It was legal for anyone who wanted to, to home school their children.

Here's a rough timeline of how it happened...

I decided to home school my son.

Within a week or two of starting to home school my son, I got a letter from that attorney telling me that I had better put my son back in school by a certain date (about a week or two later) or he would take me to court.

Shortly after the date passed for his ultimatum, I received a copy of his petition to the judge, along with a date by which I had to file a response.

I submitted my response to the petition myself because I didn't have an attorney at the time.

Shortly after that, the judge decided to take the case.

In the meantime, I had sent letters out to all of the home schooling families in the county, letting them know what was going on, and inviting them to attend the hearings so they could see for themselves.

The father in the home schooling family that was so helpful to me was a tax attorney. He decided to take my case, even though he had no courtroom experience.

There were several hearings held over a period of about nine months.

At the second to last hearing, the attorney who had filed the petition asked me, "What do you know about Wicca?"

My attorney objected, and the judge told the other attorney to explain why he had asked that question.

The other attorney said that he was going to prove that I was engaging in evil practices and he was going to show that this made me unsuitable for home schooling my son.

The judge instructed me to answer the question.

I said that I knew that Wicca was a nature-based religion, somewhat like the religions of the Native Americans, and that was about all I knew about it.

The attorney said, "What about that book you read to your son? The one about the Witches?"

I said, "That book, written by the same man who wrote Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and James and the Giant Peach, is available in childrens libraries and the children's book sections of book stores. It is about a bunch of witches who turn children into mice."

By this point, everybody in the courtroom had their mouths hanging open in disbelief that that attorney had just done what he did.

Anybody who doesn't believe what I have just written can go listen to the tape of the hearing in the Garrett County Courthouse in Oakland, Maryland.