Without cause or explanation, and acting on a purely subjective assessment of an unconventional family’s lifestyle, Sheriff Todd Pate of Kentucky’s Breckinridge County and several deputies abducted ten home-schooled children. In entirely predictable — and, to me, quite familiar — fashion, this followed an anonymous complaint to Child Protective Services.
Joe and Nicole Naughler are “un-schooling” parents who raise their children on a rural farm in Kentucky. Their non-conformist lifestyle — which emphasizes independence, self-sufficiency, spirituality, and family unity — represents a form of “diversity” that is unacceptable to the Custodians of Acceptable Opinion. The sheriff’s action came after a previous visit a year ago in which he had threatened to take the children. The earlier encounter, which was recorded, became heated when Joe and Nicole peacefully and respectfully refused to waive their rights in the face of Sheriff Pate’s invasive questioning.
Joe Naughler, according to family friend Pace Ellsworth, is deeply religious. The family converted to Mormonism several years ago, but according Ellsworth, found themselves at odds with the “conservative” and conventionally “patriotic” culture of the local congregation and were asked “not to come back.” The substance, such as it is, of the anonymous CPS complaints appears to be that the children were being “neglected,” that the family’s living conditions were unsuitable, and that Joe had supposedly threatened a neighbor with a gun.
According to the account posted by the Naughlers on their Save Our Family website,Pace and his deputies seized the two oldest sons after invading the Naughler family’s property without their consent or a court order. At the time, Joe was elsewhere on the family’s 26-acre farm. Nicole, who was five months pregnant, tried to protect her children by leaving the homestead. The intruders blocked her from leaving and demanded that she turn over the boys. When she pleaded with the intruders to leave her children alone, she was assaulted, slammed onto the hood of a police car, and arrested for “resisting.” Upon his arrival at the scene, Joe was threatened by the sheriff, who — with a hand on his gun — ordered the father to remain in the car and threatened him with felony charges if he didn’t surrender the other children by 10:00 a.m. the following day.
The family’s website offers a wealth of details about their experiences and this developing story — including audio records of Joe and Nicole’s confrontations with the sheriff and his deputies.
11:26 am on May 8, 2015
