In Focus: Tragic Examples of Connecticut’s Homeschooling Oversight Failures
Part 4 of Capitol Dispatch's ongoing 'In Focus' series on Homeschool Regulation
While most homeschooling families work hard to prepare their children for success, Connecticut’s lack of oversight leaves some children vulnerable to abuse and neglect with catastrophic consequences. Here are three tragic examples of how the absence of regulation has failed kids:
Jacqueline “Mimi” Torres-García
Eleven-year-old Jacqueline “Mimi” Torres-García died within about two months of her mother’s call to notify Farmington schools that she would be homeschooling her daughter, according to the Connecticut Mirror. More than a year passed before her body, showing signs of starvation and abuse, was discovered in a plastic container in New Britain.
Karla García—Mimi’s mother—is now facing charges related to her daughter’s death, along with her ex-boyfriend Jonatan Nanita and her sister Jackelyn Garcia.
According to news reports, Karla García notified both Farmington and New Britain schools of her intent to homeschool her daughter.
“By alerting both districts about her homeschooling plan, García made it less likely that any school officials would call to report educational neglect,” the Mirror reported.
Waterbury Captivity Case
Early last year, firefighters in Waterbury emerged from a burning residence with a 32 year-old man, who, according to news reports, weighed just 68 pounds. Police allege his condition resulted from decades of captivity at the hands of his stepmother, Kimberly Sullivan, who is now facing several charges including kidnapping, assault, unlawful restraint.
The man, whose name has not been disclosed in news reports, told police that he had been removed from school for homeschooling while in the fourth grade. In the intervening years, he endured “prolonged abuse, starvation, severe neglect, and inhumane treatment,” police said, far from the eyes of teachers and other school staff who would have been required to report evidence of abuse as mandated reporters.
Matthew Tirado
In 2017, Matthew Tirado, a 17-year-old Hartford boy with autism, died from what the Office of the Child Advocate described as “prolonged child abuse and neglect.” In a 79-page report, the OCA examined how Matthew “came to be hidden or invisible” due in part to his mother’s decision to homeschool both him and his sister.
The OCA reviewed documents from the Office of the Chief State’s Medical Examiner and state Juvenile Court, which indicated that Matthew weighed just 84 pounds at the time of his death and had sustained multiple injuries “in various stages of healing,” including a head wound and several broken ribs.
Katiria Tirado, Matthew’s mother, eventually pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to 11 years in prison, according to Fox 61. However, gaps in Connecticut’s oversight of children removed from the school system persist.
“The safety net for children who are withdrawn from school for the purpose of home-schooling must be improved,” the Office of the Child Advocate wrote in 2017.
By Hugh McQuaid
Check out our previous entries in Capitol Dispatch’s ongoing ‘In Focus’ series on Homeschool Regulation.
-Part 1: CT Has Among the Weakest Homeschool Oversight in New England
-Part 2: How School Employees Help Alert Authorities to Child Abuse
-Part 3: High Rate of DCF Involvement Found Among Homeschooled CT Children