The Department of Education in Ohio is looking into a homeschooling network that reportedly teaches children to say “Sieg Heil” and claims that public schools are led by “Zionist scum.”
More than 2,500 members of the “Dissident Homeschool Network” use the social network messaging app Telegram. Critics say the “dissidents” are a group of Nazi parents who share homeschooling lesson plans about white nationalism and Hitler, Israel National News reports
“There is absolutely no place for hate-filled, divisive and hurtful instruction in Ohio’s schools, including our state’s home-schooling community,” Ohio education department’s interim superintendent of public instruction, Stephanie Siddens, told Vice News. “I emphatically and categorically denounce the racist, antisemitic and fascist ideology and materials being circulated.”
Parents who homeschool in Ohio are required to send copies of their curriculum to state officials, but representatives have said there is little to no oversight on homeschool lesson plans.
“Parents who decide to home educate their child are responsible for choosing the curriculum and course of study,” a county official said.
The founder of the Dissident Homeschool Network has been identified as Katja Lawrence, a Dutch immigrant living in Ohio. She reportedly posted audio of her children performing Nazi salutes on her Telegram channel. She previously said that they baked a cake to celebrate Hitler’s birthday. The family also owns a dog named Blondi, the name of Hitler’s dog.
“We are so deeply invested into making sure that [our] child becomes a wonderful Nazi,” she said on a neo-Nazi podcast promoting the homeschooling group.
The Dissident Homeschool Network was launched in 2021.
Israel National News reports that lesson plans include teaching cursive writing by having students write out quotes by Hitler and American neo-Nazi George Lincoln Rockwell. Reportedly, math lessons use “manipulations” of urban crime statistics, and Confederate general Robert E. Lee is taught as a “grand role model for young, white men.”
“There is a huge network of people like us,” Lawrence said on the podcast.
Photo courtesy: ©Getty Images/M. Gucci
Amanda Casanova is a writer living in Dallas, Texas. She has covered news for ChristianHeadlines.com since 2014. She has also contributed to The Houston Chronicle, U.S. News and World Report and IBelieve.com. She blogs at The Migraine Runner.
