Letter of support for the López de Arana-Sanz family

I would appreciatte if you send this letter to suppor a family from Spain who has to testify in front of the Judge on Feb. 7th to earn their right to homeschool.

You can send it by mail to::
Juzgado de instrucción nº 1 de Vitoria-Gasteiz.
C/ Avenida Gasteiz nº 18, 3ª planta, Vitoria, SPAIN

FAX: (34)945 00 48 50
By E-mail: lauforpablo@yahoo.com


Dear Sir or Madam,
I direct my letter to you as judge of this Court, concerning a lawsuit directed to Marcelo López de Arana and Mª Elena Sanz, for publicly admitting they have decided to homeschool their son Pablo López de Arana Sanz, in spite of the fact that it is not illegal in Spain, not prohibited by any law, and legally recognized in the United Nations.
I would like to emphasize that homeschooling in Spain has already been on trial on various other occasions. There is jurisprudence in favor of a family who was already tried in the Supreme Court and won, on 10/30/1994. The court ruled that the Right to Education was completely compatible with the education the minor received in his home, so he did not have to go to the state school. This is not the only case. There are many more, but we have to note also that even in the Basque Region (where this family lives) there is a case of jurisprudence: January 31st, 2005, Court Case 2 of Vitoria (136/04), which commands that homeschooling is a legitimate option and is a growing method of education not only in Spain but in the rest of the world, including the Basque Region, having that right to do so under the Constitution in Article 27.3, which gives the right to the parents to choose the education system of their children according to their principles and beliefs. We also have the cases of the Branson-Sánchez family whose case was approved to homeschool the 7th of July, 2008, and Arantxa Sestayo was also allowed to homeschool the 25th of November of 2009, both of these cases won their right to homeschool in front of the District Attorney in the Basque Region.

In this matter, it is our wish to note that this family, just like many other families in the rest of Spain and the Basque Region, are educating their children according to the freedom of education that the Spanish Constitution provides, having chosen this method because they considered it the best for their children at the moment, which is also expressed in the Declaration of Human Rights, in Article 26.2. We believe the way the Court will be acting against articles 29 and 30 of The Declaration of Human Rights, signed by Spain as a member of the United Nations if they don´t allow this family to homeschool.

For all of these reasons we ask you, as the judge, to drop the charges against this family, and to support their right to homeschool their children.

Sincerely,

Name and ID number