The death of a 10-year-old Bangor boy allegedly at the hands of his parents and grandmother shows how abuse can go unnoticed for months at a time — especially for homeschooled children.
Little is publicly known about Braxtyn Smith. He was never enrolled in Bangor schools, and his parents appeared to keep him out of the public eye. When a neighbor saw Braxtyn outside once, she assumed he was only visiting.
There is a blindspot in homeschooling laws that allow abuse like this to happen without anyone noticing, said Samantha Field, the government relations director for Coalition for Responsible Home Education.
“The ceiling is incredibly high with homeschooling students. There can be just incredible results,” Field said. “The unfortunate problem is that the floor doesn’t exist. You can achieve incredible results, but there’s nothing stopping somebody from being dead.
“Parents can hide the fact that they murdered their children, sometimes for years.”
It’s unclear how frequently Braxtyn interacted with adults, beyond his mother, father and grandmother — who are all charged with depraved indifference murder in his death. When Braxtyn died Feb. 18 at a hospital, he showed signs of months of horrific abuse that left visible bruises across his body and included food deprivation, court records said. Those signs of abuse likely would have been reported if he had been in school.
A community candlelight vigil for Braxtyn is scheduled for 6 p.m. Saturday at the Bangor waterfront.
Maine’s homeschool law requires yearly assessments and written notices of intent to homeschool students, but state law does not require students to appear in person for the assessments.
Notices of intent to homeschool cannot be disclosed under the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, so the BDN can’t confirm if Braxtyn was ever registered as a homeschooled student. Freedom of Access Act requests for those documents sent to Bangor schools and the Maine Department Education were denied under that federal law.
School personnel by law must report suspected child abuse to the Maine Office of Child and Family Services. Mandatory reporters are designed to be an early warning network to spot potential child abuse and neglect and provide prompt intervention. But it’s possible Braxtyn never interacted with any mandatory reporters, which also include medical and law enforcement personnel.
The Department of Health and Human Services declined to say whether it had previously investigated Braxtyn’s family. The Bangor Police Department declined to release how often, or if ever, police responded to the Birch Hill Estates home, citing an ongoing investigation.
A third of students are withdrawn from public schools for homeschooling after substantiated reports of abuse, according to a database maintained by the Coalition for Responsible Home Education. Although Maine knows how many children are being homeschooled, the state has no way to see what their lives look like.
The yearly assessments for homeschooled children can take the form of submitting the results of a standardized achievement test or an educational portfolio review by a certified Maine teacher. Parents who abuse their children tend to use the test option because there’s far less of a chance of the child interacting with a mandatory reporter, Field said.
If the assessment does not comply with requirements “the superintendent’s office” will follow up for the missing information, according to the state’s Home Instruction Frequently Asked Questions page. Records related to what — if any — assessments Braxtyn took are not public.
Maine has 858 homeschooled 10-year-olds, and a total of 10,122 homeschooled students statewide, as of June, according to data from the Maine Department of Education. Parents have to guarantee they will provide at least 175 days of instruction in a year, in various subjects, including math, English and language arts, social studies and science.
No diplomas or transcripts are issued by the state of Maine for homeschooled students.
One change the Coalition for Responsible Home Education is advocating for is a wellness exam requirement for homeschooled students, in which a pediatrician submits a form saying they saw the child. It’s the same exam many children have before starting public schools and nothing that is burdensome or violates privacy, Field said.
The exam happens yearly for most children in healthy families, she said.
“We want to bring the unregulated experience kind of in line with what a responsible parent is doing,” Field said. “A responsible parent is seeking outside assistance or having assessments done … we want to make sure that that’s kind of what’s happening across the board.”
Under Maine law, all homeschoolers are treated the same, whether or not the children are actually learning anything, Field said.
