The Ohio Department of Education is investigating a web-based homeschool network that goals to indoctrinate children as Nazis — but insiders say the state has little power to vary the white supremacist curriculum.
The Dissident Homeschool community — a Telegram channel — was founded in October 2021 by Katja and Logan Lawrence, a married couple with 4 children based in Upper Sandusky, based on a report published last month by the anti-fascist research group Anonymous Comrades Collective.
In a conversation last yr on the neo-Nazi podcast “Achtung! Amerikaner,” Katja – who goes by “Mrs. Saxon” on the channel – told host Gordon Kahl that she began Dissident Homeschool because she “was having a rough time finding Nazi-approved school material for [her elementary-age] homeschool children.”
The Lawrences and their 2,300 followers reportedly use the channel to disseminate overtly racist, homophobic and anti-Semitic lesson plans, including several worksheets which have students tracing over quotes from Adolf Hitler.
Dissident Homeschool is now the main target of a “compliance with statutory and regulatory requirements” review, a state official acquainted with the investigation told CNN this week.
But despite the channel’s objectionable material, the state insider told the network that Ohio officials are limited of their ability to overhaul the curriculum.
Under Ohio law, the outlet said, the Department of Education doesn’t review or approve homeschool content.
Parents who homeschool within the state are reportedly only required to supply yearly written notification and reassurances that features 900 hours of instruction across multiple subjects, a temporary outline of the intended curriculum and assurance that the teacher has a high-school degree or the equivalent.
Even so, officials are scrambling to distance themselves from Dissident Homeschool, with Eric Landversicht, superintendent of the Upper Sandusky Exempted Village School District, writing in a Jan. 30 statement that the district “vehemently condemns” the network’s content.
Scott DiMauro, president of the Ohio Education Association, told CNN that the channel’s “form of hate has no place in our state.”
While DiMauro said that Dissident Homeschool’s lessons were “not reflective of the larger homeschooling community,” he admitted that the shortage of accountability for homeschooling families allowed extreme ideologies to infiltrate the system.
“Individuals are selecting to remove themselves and take away their children from the education system,” he said.
“When that’s the environment you’re in, it opens the door to every kind of individuals with every kind of ideological perspectives to fill that gap.”
Several comments within the Dissident Homeschool chat reflect DiMauro’s evaluation. In line with VICE News, one parent wrote that they “don’t even want [their] kids exposed to the gay loving, anti-family, Jew factory that’s public school.”
Dr. Stephanie K. Siddens, the interim superintendent of Public Instruction in Ohio, issued her own statement on Jan. 30.
“I’m outraged and saddened. There is completely no place for hate-filled, divisive and hurtful instruction in Ohio’s schools, including our state’s home-schooling community,” she said.
“I emphatically and categorically denounce the racist, antisemitic and fascist ideology and materials being circulated as reported in recent media stories.”
VICE News’ report also noted concerns concerning the Lawrences encouraging Dissident Homeschool members — a few of whom hailed from Norway, Germany and the UK — to take their far-right ideologies offline by joining local hate groups.
“There is a big network of individuals like us,” Katja reportedly wrote of the family’s decision to affix secretive “pool parties” hosted by the white supremacist group The Right Stuff.
“We joined a pool party and our kids now play with other white children where they will speak and play freely,” she gushed.
But while the potential results of the DOE investigation remain unclear, the Lawrences have already faced pushback from others within the Upper Sandusky community.
Earlier this week, WTVG reported that the Wyandot County Sheriff’s Office denied rumors that members of the Dissident Homeschool network were affiliated with the office.
Sheriff Todd Frey clarified this week that some reported members could have worked “with or for” an organization that designed the department’s website almost a decade ago.
“We, like all decent people, are disgusted and appalled that outliers in our community are teaching hatred and contempt to essentially the most vulnerable amongst us, our kids,” he assured residents.
CNN also reported Thursday that Logan Lawrence was now not affiliated along with his family’s insurance agency following a press release from the corporate denouncing the couple’s behavior as “disturbing and secretive.”
“The viewpoints & ideology recently expressed by Logan Lawrence and his wife by no means represent the values of Lawrence Insurance Agency,” the statement read.
“We emphatically denounce what they’ve said and done & we wholeheartedly empathize with all who’ve been hurt, upset, and disturbed by their conduct.”
