Upper superintendent condemns reports of Nazi homeschooling

UPPER SANDUSKY — Officials are condemning reports that an Upper Sandusky couple is homeschooling their children using a "Nazi-approved" curriculum. Eric Landversicht, superintendent of Upper Sandusky School District, responded Monday to allegations made in a Vice News article claiming the couple was running a Telegram group connecting other parents in Nazi-based homeschooling. Telegram is a messaging app. "The allegations are egregious and the District vehemently condemns any such resources," Landversicht wrote in a letter to the Upper Sandusky School community. "I first learned of these allegations last week," Landversicht wrote. "Parents are responsible for choosing the curriculum and course of study; the parents' chosen curriculum is not sponsored or endorsed by the district." The Telegram channel, titled "Dissident Homeschool," made national news after the Vice News article was published online using reports from Anonymous Comrades Collective, an anti-fascist investigative group. The collective published a detailed report claiming to unmask the identities of "Mr. and Mrs. Saxon," the aliases of the channel's administrators. The group also placed the couple in the Upper Sandusky area. Vice reported the home school group had 2,400 subscribers nationwide. The administrators launched the channel in October 2021. One of them appeared on the neo-Nazi podcast "Achtung! Amerikaner" last year, stating they were "having a rough time finding Nazi-approved school material" for their children. They said during the podcast that they and their partner had their "children's best interest at heart and nobody can do a better job than we can. We are so deeply invested into making sure our child becomes a wonderful Nazi." On Monday, journalists and officials in Ohio condemned the homeschooling channel via social media. Teresa Fedor, a member of the Ohio Board of Education and former state senator from Toledo, posted a statement on Twitter, saying "hate has no place in Ohio" and the material should alarm all Ohioans. "Silence regarding hate, is complicity for hate. At a time when extreme politics in Ohio are pushing for ideological interference in the educational curriculum we face a moral crossroads. As elected officials, the Governor and all Ohio Elected Officials, must all stand up and do everything we can to make sure that never again will we stand silent in the face of hate," it reads. Per the Ohio Department of Education, parents agree to provide 900 hours of instruction per year, notify a district's superintendent every year and provide an assessment of students' work, which includes results of a nationally-recognized, standardized achievement test, a written narrative indicating a portfolio of samples of a child's work and assurance that the child's academic progress is in accordance with their abilities or an alternative academic assessment of the child's proficiency. In his letter, Landversicht said he couldn't discuss specific students or share records due to state and federal privacy laws. "The Board of Education's policy is to maintain an education environment that is free from all forms of unlawful harassment," he wrote. "The Board vigorously enforces its prohibition against discriminatory harassment based on Protected Classes." Landversicht said keeping the district's students safe is his top priority and anyone with a concern about discriminatory conduct within the district's programs or activities should contact the district.