10 Children of Homeschool, Off-Grid Family Placed in Strangers’ Homes in 4 Counties

Photo Credit: Off The Grid News

Photo Credit: Off The Grid News

By Off The Grid News Staff. The rural Kentucky parents at the center of a custody battle that has shocked the homeschool and off-grid communities are staying upbeat and hope to get their 10 children back soon, a family friend says.

“They’re being positive. They want to get their kids back. They’re not trying to be overly critical of the authorities,” family friend Pace Ellsworth told Off The Grid News.

The 10 children were seized Wednesday from the parents, Joe and Nicole Naugler, following an anonymous tip that apparently related to their style of off-grid living. The family is also part of the “unschooling” movement, a type of homeschooling.

A hearing is scheduled for Monday. As of now, officials have placed the children with four families in four different counties, and as of Friday morning, the parents had not spoken with them. The four families are families that Kentucky’s version of CPS chose – families the Nauglers don’t know.

The ease with which sheriff deputies were able to take the kids may have been the most shocking. (Read more from “10 Children of Homeschool, Off-Grid Family Placed in Strangers’ Homes in 4 Counties” HERE)

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Police Seize 10 Children From Homeschool Family Because They’re Off-Grid

By Off The Grid News Staff. An off-grid homeschool family of 12 in rural Kentucky was raided, the mother arrested, and the 10 children seized simply because the government disagrees with their lifestyle and their educational choices, family members and friends say.

Until Wednesday, Joe and Nicole Naugler lived with their 10 kids in a cabin on 26 acres in Breckinridge County, about an hour southwest of Louisville.

“They are an extremely happy family,” family friend Pace Ellsworth told Off The Grid News.

Acting on an anonymous tip about the family’s off-grid lifestyle, sheriff’s officers entered the property and home Wednesday, and even blocked the access road to the family property, the family says. Joe and eight of the children were away, but Nicole – who is five-months pregnant – was home with the two oldest kids. Sheriff deputies then seemingly allowed Nicole and the two children to drive away but they got only a short distance before deputies pulled them over and took the two children away from the mom, who was arrested for disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. (She says the arrest took place after she did not passively allow deputies to take the children.) Nicole was able to contact her husband and have a brief conversation. (Read more from this story HERE)

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