12-YEAR-OLD WAS ORDERED INTO STATE CUSTODY BECAUSE HIS FAMILY CHOSE TO HOMESCHOOL.
Norwegian children's services have returned their parents to a 12-year-old Christian boy after the child was forcibly removed from the house following the parents' decision to educate their son home because he was being bullied at school.
Leif and Terese Kristiansen announced on Wednesday that their son, Kai, has returned home to Ås.
"We are very happy to announce that Kai is back home with his family, and we are very happy to see him again," wrote Leif Kristiansen in a Facebook post. "We could not have done this without the international support of others who have helped bring him back home, we are eternally grateful."
The family made international headlines when the father posted a viral video now deleted on Facebook earlier this month that showed his son being chased in the snow by police and agents of the Norwegian children's services agency, Barnevernet, before being He was overthrown as a fugitive and sat down while his mother cried for help.
The Kristiansens say their son was reported to the agency by his school weeks after he was expelled from school.
The boy's family says they took Kai out of school because he was being bullied and harassed. The Kristiansens contend that they completed the documentation to dismiss their son from school, and planned to temporarily home school until another school is found.
On February 8, about three weeks after he stopped going to school, police officers and Barnevernet agents went to the house with an expulsion order.
Although the county board initially approved Kai's expulsion days later, the family had an appeal hearing last Thursday.
The supporters were suspended for days as the Kristiansens did not publish an immediate update until Wednesday. Defenders close to the situation told The Christian Post that they feared that the family would be intimidated and kept silent.
"Our lawyer advised us not to announce here on Facebook before Kai came home," Kristiansen explained in his Facebook post. "We had to give our consent to an agreement with conditions that will not be completed until [May]. This is a tiring process, but a small price to pay for Kai to return home."
Raymond Skorstad, executive director of the Norwegian-based children's defense organization Barnets Beste, told CP that the Kristiansens had to agree to hand over their passports to the government until May 3.
In addition, the couple agreed to attend the meetings and have the school's psychological service help their child.
"These are reasonable terms to ensure the child's homecoming and satisfies the concerns of the cps," Skorstad told CP. "But it's still a brutal invasion of Kristiansens' rights to privacy."
Terese Kristiansen, a Canadian mother living in Norway, told CTV News that after her son was removed, she completed all the necessary paperwork to take her son to another school. However, she told the store on Wednesday that the situation happened due to a "misunderstanding".
Although the couple removed their son from school temporarily to educate him at home, the school did not give his approval.
"I did not have approval for home education, even though we let them know and we complied with the law," Kristiansen said. "It was a complete misunderstanding and it was a bit extreme to get here."
The Barnevernet has received international criticism from children and advocates of parental rights who claim that the agency is too quick or unjustified to remove children from their parents.
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