As in the United States where private and parochial school students are unwelcome at the White House Easter Egg Roll, statists everywhere are driven to indoctrinate and control your children. Better that they should be ignorant and compliant slaves of the state, than able to think for themselves. This Brazilian verdict was issued despite these two boys passing law school entrace exams -- at ages 13 and 14.From LifeSiteNews
By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman
Despite the fact that his children passed difficult government imposed tests, and even qualified for law school at the ages of 13 and 14, homeschooler Cleber Nunes and his wife Bernadeth have been slapped with fines equivalent to a total of $3,200 for refusing to submit their children to the Brazilian school system.However, Nunes told LifeSiteNews.com (LSN) that he has no intention to pay the fine, although he says that he might have to spend 15-30 days in jail if he does not.
Although homeschooling is common in many countries, including the United States, and is associated with higher levels of academic achievement, it is completely prohibited in Brazil, the government of which has become increasingly intrusive in recent decades following the establishment of a socialist regime in the 1990s.
Since Nunes began to homeschool his two oldest children four years ago, his family has been subject to repeated threats of fines, imprisonment, and loss of custody. However, he has resisted steadfastly and his case has gained national attention.
The guilty verdict in the criminal case against Nunes, which follows two negative verdicts in a parallel civil case that ended over a year ago, was given despite the fact that David and Jonatas Nunes had passed a difficult set of tests imposed by the criminal court.
"They had asked the kids to do the tests to check their level of knowledge, and also psychological tests to check their mental health," Nunes told LifeSiteNews (LSN). "It seems that the only valid result they expected was the failure of the kids."
The tests imposed by the court on Nunes' children were so difficult that one of the teachers who had designed it reportedly admitted that she herself could not pass it. However, David and Jonatas Nunes both passed the exams by margins of five and eight percentage points.
Despite his sons' performance, however, the government has again ruled against Nunes, this time in criminal court, and ordered a fine. The total amount in fines owed by Nunes as a result of the decisions against him has mounted to over $3,200 in US dollars.
"If they impose tests it means that two possibilities should be considered. They could be suffering intellectual abandonment, or not," Nunes told LSN. "In other words, they were trying to prove they were victims. But they passed and they kept saying we were criminal."
Nunes says that despite his success, the judge ruled against him because of his style of home schooling, in which the children direct their own learning, with Nunes overseeing the process.
"The judge said we left the children to learn by themselves," said Nunes. "He recognized that they passed the university entrance examination and the tests, but said that it was by their own efforts," he added, calling that a "joke."
"They want to take control of them, of their minds"
Nunes says he has decided not to appeal the ruling, because Brazil's Supreme Court has already refused to hear the appeal of his civil case. Although he has paid his wife's fine to spare her jail time, he says he will not pay his own fine.
"The natural thing to do is appeal, but I don't trust the Brazilian judges," Nunes told LSN. "They already showed who they are and what they want. They are not interested in protecting our kids....They want to take control of them, of their minds, they want them out of their home."
Although he has refused to comply with the rulings against him, Nunes currently faces no more legal difficulties stemming from the homeschooling of David and Jonatas, because they are now beyond the age of mandatory schooling.
However, his daughter could soon be subject to compulsory schooling in Brazil. She will soon turn four, the age at which compulsory schooling begins in Brazil.
Contact Information:
Cleber Nunes (he speaks English) can be contacted at: cleber@andradenunes.org
To contact the Brazilian Embassy:
Embassy of Brazil in the USA
3006 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, DC
20008-3634
Phone: (202) 238-2700
Fax: (202) 238-2827
Email: ambassador@brasilemb.orgEmbassy of Brazil in Canada
450 Wilbrod Street
Ottawa, Ontario, K1N 6M8
Phone: (613) 237-1090 or (613) 755-5160
Fax: (613) 237-6144
E-mail: mailbox@brasembottawa.orgEmbassies of Brazil to other Nations: http://www.embassyworld.com/embassy/Brazil/Brazil1.html
On June 23, Brazil's Superior Tribunal of Justice (the nation's Supreme Court for cases not involving Constitutional law) upheld the acquittal of several men who had paid two girls, 12 and 13 years of age, to have sexual intercourse with them, on the grounds that prostitution was not covered by child sex abuse statutes.
The men, one of whom has been identified as a Brazilian sports celebrity, reportedly took photos of the encounter.
Although the fact that the men engaged in sexual intercourse with the girls was apparently not in doubt, the Tribunal of Justice of the state of Mato Grosso do Sul had ruled that it was not a crime, because the girls were engaged in prostitution. Brazil's Superior Tribunal agreed, upholding the lower court ruling.
"The prostitutes waited for the client in the street, and are no longer people who enjoy a good image in society," the judge ruled in the original case, adding that "prostitution is such an old profession and is considered to be barely a moral abuse, but never a crime subject to penalty."
Ariel de Castro Alves, a member of Brazil's National Council for the Rights of Children and Adolescents, expressed horror at the ruling.
"The decision is almost a license for abuse and exploitation to be committed without punishment. Currently, cases like these are difficult to punish," she told the Brazilian newspaper O Globo. "It is a difficult process, that involves impediments, and very often, threats against the victims and their families. When punishment is possible, we have an absurd decision like this."
The decision is also being denounced by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).
"As incredible as it may seem, the argument used is that the accused did not commit a crime, because the children had been sexually exploited before by other people," the organization commented in a public statement.
"Moreover, the decision causes indignation, because of the insensitivity of the judiciary regarding the circumstance of vulnerability to which the girls are subject," the statement continued. "The case also establishes a dangerous precedent: that sexual exploitation is acceptable when it is paid for, as if our children are for sale in the perverse market of adult power."
In a second case, reported in Brazil on June 5 by legal commentator Renato Pacca, an appeals court in the state of Rio Grande do Sul overturned the conviction of a 30-year-old man who admitted that he had had anal sex with his 13-year-old brother.
According to the prosecutor, the accused, who has not been named in the Brazilian media, "through real and presumed violence, forced his three minor brothers who were 9, 12, and 13 years of age, to practice various libidinous acts of sexual intercourse during the time period in question, consisting in showing them pornographic films, submitting them to various sexual services, and practicing anal coitus."
Although the accused confessed to molesting his 13-year-old brother, and although he was sentenced to 12 years in prison, he was absolved on appeal to the Fifth Criminal Chamber of the state's Tribunal of Justice because the child had "requested it."
According to the text of the judgment, "sexual promiscuity was the tonic of domestic life, and this reality is sufficiently attested by the natural way the topic was confronted by the supposed victims."
The 13 year old "effectively consented to have sexual relations with his brother" the court said, by "sitting on the lap of his brother, arguing that 'I knew that was wrong' and that, in the act, he had the role of the woman and the accused the role of the man."
Prosecutors appealed the case to the Supreme Tribunal of Justice, which, in contrast to the other, similar case regarding the two girls, overturned the appeals court ruling and restored the original sentence.
Contact Information:
Embassy of Brazil in the USA
3006 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, DC
20008-3634
Phone: (202) 238-2700
Fax: (202) 238-2827
Email: ambassador@brasilemb.org
Embassy of Brazil in Canada
450 Wilbrod Street
Ottawa, Ontario, K1N 6M8
Phone: (613) 237-1090 or (613) 755-5160
Fax: (613) 237-6144
E-mail: mailbox@brasembottawa.org
Embassy of Brazil in the United Kingdom
32 Green Street
London W1K 7AT
Phone: 020 73999000
Fax: 020 73999100
Email: info@brazil.org.uk
Embassies of Brazil to other Nations: http://www.embassyworld.com/embassy/Brazil/Brazil_1/
