On Tuesday, a German family who escaped to the state of Tennessee in order to homeschool their children was granted asylum by a United States Immigration judge. This news comes from the legal group who has been representing the family.

This grant makes it possible for Uwe Romeike, his wife and their 5 children to remain in Morrisville, Tennessee. This has been their home since 2008. According to Romeike, the family was harassed because they were evangelical Christians and they wanted to homeschool their children. In Germany, attending school is compulsory.

The police showed up one morning in October 2006 and escorted the children to school. The state constitutions in Germany require that children attend either public or private schools. If they do not, their parents may have to pay fines or serve prison time.
On top of that, in November 2007, the highest appellate court in Germany ruled that in some cases, if parents refused to send their children to school, social services could take the children from their homes. This is the decision that, says Romeike, convinced the family they had no choice but to leave Germany.

When this story first appeared, the Associated Press mistakenly printed that the Romeikes were from Bietigheim-Bissingen. This was incorrect. The Romeikes are originally from Bissingen an der Teck.

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