Parents face prison sentence for homeschooling after court accuses them of intellectual neglect in bizarre cultural charge

A Brazilian court has sentenced a couple to 50 days in prison for “intellectual neglect” after they homeschooled their two daughters without a state-approved curriculum.A São Paulo criminal court ruled against Audato and Ieda Denardi, alleging they had failed to include programs on “gender and sex education” and “tolerance and diversity” in the curriculum for their daughters, aged 15 and 11, Alliance Defending Freedom (“ADF”) International said.According to the legal group, the court also ruled that the parents failed to properly integrate their children into Brazilian culture, citing the girls’ preference for religious and classical music over popular trap or “sertanejo” (folk) music.Isabel Monteiro, the defense attorney representing the family, said the judge made an “ideological decision to convict them” based largely on the older daughter’s preference for sacred music over mainstream music that often features explicit lyrics.The Denardis were sentenced to 50 days in prison by a lower court in April.They remain free while appealing the ruling, which is believed to be the first criminal prosecution of its kind in Brazil.The Denardis told Fox News Digital they began homeschooling the girls in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic after realizing their schools were failing to give them a proper education.

Ieda said the girls thrived in homeschooling, and so she decided to continue educating the girls at home.After officially withdrawing their daughters in 2022, state officials began conducting home visits and pressuring them to re-enroll the girls.The couple told Fox News Digital they were surprised by the ruling and never expected to be sentenced to prison for trying to provide a better education for their daughters, who are both accomplished pianists and speak multiple languages.Even the state’s own prosecutors urged the court to acquit the parents, concluding after an evaluation by an independent educational psychologist that the...