Ohio education officials investigating pro-Nazi homeschooling network

The Ohio Department of Education is reportedly investigating a pro-Nazi homeschooling network run by a couple in the state, according to several media outlets.

The department is “actively reviewing compliance with statutory and regulatory requirements,” an official with the state agency told The Washington Post, after reports emerged last week about the homeschooling network known as “Dissident Homeschool.”

The network, which distributes pro-Nazi curriculum via a Telegram channel, has more than 2,400 subscribers, according to Vice News.

The Ohio couple who run the channel, known there as Mr. and Mrs. Saxon, have been identified as Katja and Logan Lawrence of Upper Sandusky.

The homeschooling network and the Lawrences’ identities were initially reported by an anti-fascist research group known as the Anonymous Comrades Collective. Two relatives of the Lawrences also confirmed their identities to HuffPost.

The couple reportedly created the network because they were “having a rough time finding Nazi-approved school material” for their children, Katja Lawrence told the neo-Nazi podcast “Achtung Amerikaner” in a November 2021 episode.

“We are so deeply invested into making sure that that child becomes a wonderful Nazi,” Lawrence added on the podcast.

Stephanie Siddens, Ohio’s interim superintendent of public instruction, said in a statement on Twitter that she was “outraged and saddened” to learn of the homeschooling group.

“There is absolutely no place for hate-filled, divisive and hurtful instruction in Ohio’s schools, including our state’s home-schooling community,” she added.

Eric Landversicht, the superintendent of the Upper Sandusky Exempted Village Schools, noted in a letter to the community that parents who homeschool their children are “responsible for choosing the curriculum and course of study” and added that “the parents’ chosen curriculum is not sponsored or endorsed by the District.”