Kassel, Germany - A German court quashed Wednesday three-month jail terms imposed on a home-schooling couple who refuse to send their children to a state school, and gave them token fines instead. The ruling was unusual in Germany, which, unlike other western nations, has applied state might, including prison and making children wards of the state, to compel school attendance.
The court in the central city of Kassel handed a fine of 60 euros (90 dollars) apiece to the father, 48, and mother, 43. They were appealing against three-month prison sentences issued in June 2008.
The fundamentalist Christian couple, who have stopped working so they can educate their children at home, have indicated they will continue to refuse to send their seven children to a public school.
"We will stick to our faith and conscience. For us there is no choice," the father said before the verdict.
The prosecutor in Kassel conceded that the children were well brought up.
"They have learned a lot," he said. "But it makes no difference. Their home is not a school. Schooling is compulsory for all."
Fundamentalist Christians believe public schools are hostile to the Bible and encourage pre-marital sex, and that the influence of non-Christian, "morally lax" pupils will turn their own children against their faith.
"Children need a solid frame of values to equip them for their future," said the father in testimony. "State schools cannot given such a framework. To some extent they even damage it."
The Kassel court said German law did not allow an acquittal.
One Hamburg couple challenged compulsory schooling in Germany's highest court and lost. After police tried to take their children away from them, the family emigrated in 2006. A home-school group estimates 500 children in Germany are kept out of school by ruses.
German has also threatened to fine conservative Muslim parents who have sought exemption from "permissive" sex-education classes.
