Ohio homeschooling group openly teaches Nazi ideology

Subjects such as math are also slanted to teach hatred of blacks, Jews, and other minorities on the Telegram channel.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

An Ohio homeschooling group is teaching elementary-school children the principles of neo-Nazi ideology over the internet, Vice News reported Sunday. The issue is now under investigation by state authorities.

The article was based on a report published a week earlier by the anti-fascist research group Anonymous Comrades Collective that unveiled the Dissident Homeschool network, run by a couple in Upper Sandusky, Ohio.

Logan and Katja Lawrence, aka Mr. and Mrs. Saxon on their Telegram channel, openly talk about their admiration for Adolf Hitler and national socialism to more than 2,400 subscribers nationwide, the report said.

Katja is the primary source for lesson plans that indoctrinate the children with Nazi ideology and white supremacist values.

One example cited was the lesson given on Martin Luther King Day, according to which “the black civil rights icon was really a “deceitful, dishonest, riot-inciting negro” and “the face of a movement which ethnically cleansed whites out of urban areas and precipitated the anti-white regime that we are now fighting to free ourselves from.”

Subjects such as math are also slanted to teach hatred of blacks, Jews, and other minorities.

Katja, a naturalized American citizen from the Netherlands, also provides tips for helpingp the students “navigate society” while keeping their racism secret.

In response to a question in the group chat, she wrote, “We do not start teaching our children these things until we know they are able to *not* say certain things, and to keep things quiet around certain people.”

If “accidental racism” slips out, she continued, “we as parents can quickly step in and chuckle, and say ‘Oh kids! They say the darndest things!’”

‘I think you should kill yourself’

The Collective revealed that Katja told a new-Nazi podcast called Achtung! Amerikaner last year that the couple had established the network in October 2021 because “we have our children’s best interest at heart.” She said she was “having a rough time finding Nazi-approved school material” when they are “are so deeply invested into making sure that that child becomes a wonderful Nazi.”

The Vice News article said it reached out to podcast host Gordon Kahl to comment on the Lawrences, and his response was, “I think you should kill yourself instead.”

Following the media reports, Ohio officials slammed the homeschooling network. In a statement to Vice News, Governor Mike DeWine condemned the group and said, “Racism and antisemitism are vile and repugnant in all their forms.”

Congressman Bob Latta, who represents the Lawrences’ district, called for the authorities to investigate the group, telling the news site, “Hatred and bigotry of all forms have absolutely no place in America.”

Stephanie Siddens, the department of education’s interim superintendent of public instruction, told the outlet, “There is absolutely no place for hate-filled, divisive and hurtful instruction in Ohio’s schools, including our state’s home-schooling community. I emphatically and categorically denounce the racist, antisemitic and fascist ideology and materials being circulated.”

The state’s education authorities are now officially getting involved, Vice News tweeted Monday.

“A spokesperson for the Ohio Department of Education is now actively reviewing [the group’s] compliance with statutory and regulatory requirements,” according to an update.

State regulations require that when parents want to homeschool their children, they must provide “a brief outline of the intended curriculum” as well as “a list of the teaching materials” each year to the local school district.