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US homeschooling protection hero close to death

A major figure in the worldwide effort to provide legal protection for homeschoolers is seriously ill with complications related to multiple sclerosis. The family and colleagues of Chris Klicka, an attorney with the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), said he is not likely to return to his Virginia home and are asking for prayers after Klicka became critically ill with infections and problems with blood pressure, reports Hilary White, LifeSiteNews.com.

Klicka's condition has been deteriorating since late August, as he has lost more mobility and the ability to swim, walk or stand, according to family members. On Saturday, September 26, his wife Tracy Klicka wrote on the family's blog of her husband's desire to attend a national homeschooling conference to "say goodbye ourselves to these dear homeschool leaders and friends."

Klicka was taken to the emergency room of a hospital in Colorado Springs on Friday in critical condition. On Sunday, with her husband in the ICU at St. Francis Medical Center, Tracy Klicka wrote, "Chris is close to going home [to God] we believe. He is fairly unconscious, non-responsive and has had no nutrition since Thursday except hydration and electrolyte and glucose supplementation."

"With almost complete certainty, he will not be coming home to Virginia."

Yesterday, Tracy wrote that Chris's condition had stabilized and the fluid on his lungs had reduced and he is being moved into home hospice care with a local family.

Klicka is Senior Counsel of the HSLDA as well as Director of State and International Relations. As such he has become a leading figure in the fight for families from Europe who face the removal of their children and even arrest and prison sentences by governments. He is also the author of several books including Home Schooling: The Right Choice, The Heart of Home Schooling, and his latest book, Home School Heroes.

On the family's blog CaringBridge, Klicka's family said they have been "overwhelmed" by the responses from supporters and that they are grateful for the inquiries about financial donations.

The HSLDA is the world's leading non-profit legal defense organization for homeschooling families and represents thousands of such families in the US and Europe. The group has spent years lobbying in Washington and at the state level for the rights of homeschoolers under the US constitution and through affiliation with European groups for those who operate in countries where homeschooling is under threat.

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TAGS: USA homeschooling Chris Klicka CaringBridge Home School Legal Defense Association

[10/03/2009]

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