In the wake of a tragedy, there is a natural and understandable desire to prevent something similar from ever happening again. Unfortunately, legislators too often respond hastily to the passionate demands that they “do something” without thinking through the consequences of their actions. This phenomenon gave rise to the morbid truism that “dead kids make bad laws,” such as “Kyleigh’s Law” in New Jersey. In the wake of a fatal car accident involving a teenage driver, the state legislature passed a law requiring teens to drive vehicles with special decals to make it easier for police to enforce an 11:00pm curfew. When irate parents raised concerns that the decals put their children at risk of being followed by pedophiles, 13 legislators who had initially voted for the law filed a bill to repeal it.
The story that gave rise to “Teddy’s Law” (Senate Bill 248) in Ohio is similarly heartbreaking and the legislative response has been similarly misguided. After teachers reported their suspicions about abuse to Children’s Services, Teddy Foltz-Tedesco’s mother pulled him out of school under the pretense that she would homeschool him. Instead, her boyfriend, Zaryl Bush, tortured and killed the 14-year-old Teddy. Bush is now serving life in prison.
Teddy’s story is a tragic failure of the system to protect him after years of warning signs and reports from neighbors. However, the legislators’ response goes in the wrong direction. Rather than address why social services failed to act on repeated reports of abuse, “Teddy’s Law” treats all would-be homeschooler parents as child abusers until proven innocent. The legislation further assumes that all children belong to the state, as it requires families to seek permission from the government to homeschool their own children. They would have to submit to background checks and a social services investigation in which parents and children are interviewed separately. The law grants the agency the authority to deny the right to homeschool if it “determines it is not in the best interest of the child,” without providing any guidelines as to how that determination should be made.
And while it unconstititionally treats all parents as possible criminals, the Home School Legal Defense Association argues that “Teddy’s Law” likely would not have even saved Teddy:
Even if, as SB 248 would require, his mother had sought social service’s approval to homeschool and was denied, he still would have been at home subject to abuse after school. Regardless of where he went to school, Teddy was left by authorities in a home where they knew abuse was occurring.
Clearly, SB 248 would not have saved Teddy.
SB 248 turns fundamental American values upside down. Parents have been deemed by the United States Supreme Court in Parham v. JR to act in their children’s best interests. In Pierce v. Society of Sisters, the Court ruled that parents have a fundamental right to direct the education of their children. This law replaces parents with unqualified social workers to make educational decisions for children.
Moreover, as HSLDA notes, by treating all parents as child abusers, “Teddy’s Law” diverts scarce resources away from focusing on parents actually suspected of child abuse. Instead of protecting children like Teddy, the misguided law would make it more likely that future Teddys would fall through the cracks.
