HB 2794

Alecia Pennington, “The Girl Who Doesn’t Exist,” Can Now Prove She Does

HA Editorial Team10 Comments

Photo used with permission by Alecia Pennington.

By R.L. Stollar, HA Community Coordinator

Alecia Pennington has existed her entire life — but until today she wasn’t able to prove it.

Last September, Alecia Pennington fled her Texas family with the help of her grandparents. She began speaking up about her parents’ alleged identification abuse — how they were refusing to help her get identifying documents (such as her birth certificate) necessary for functioning in society. Alecia’s parents, James and Lisa Pennington, are group leaders for the Texas Home School Coalition (THSC) and board members of the Hill Country Home School Association. In 2010, THSC awarded James and Lisa their “Leaders of the Year” award. Lisa is a popular homeschool blogger and speaker who writes for Hip Homeschool Moms and has presented at the Homeschool Moms Winter Summit.

Alecia created a video about the alleged abuse and it quickly went viral on YouTube. As of today, the video has almost one and a half million views and prompted Alecia to create the now-internationally-reported Help Me Prove It campaign, whose Facebook page has over 7,000 likes.

Her campaign solicited the legal help of attorney Bill Morris as well as legislative assistance from Texas State Representative Marsha Farney, who proposed a bill, HB 2794, to help people like Alecia who are American citizens yet lacking necessary documentation. The bill, which “allow[s] individuals to petition for a delayed birth certificate in the county where they live, rather than in the county in which they were born,” and “make[s] it a misdemeanor for a parent to refuse to sign an affidavit to help their child obtain a delayed birth certificate,” was signed into law by Texas Governor Greg Abbot on June 19, 2015, and went into effect several days ago on September 1.

Alecia’s grandmother, Lee Southworth, who helped Alecia break free from her family, says they have put in “thousands of hours” of work thus far attempting to obtain Alecia’s birth certificate. And today, after the enactment of HB 2794, their work has finally reached a joyous ending. This morning Alecia went to Williamson County Court House and received the birth certificate she has fought so long to obtain. “So happy and excited this morning!” she exclaimed on Facebook. “Finally able to prove legal identity!” Alecia extended her sincere thanks to her lawyer William Morris and and Representative Marsha Farney: “You guys are rockstars,” she said. “I can’t thank you enough.”

While Alecia’s story ends on a well-deserved happy note, it is important to remember that there are many homeschool alumni around the United States that are in the exact same situation Alecia was in. But tragically, unlike Alecia, their stories will never go viral and their state representatives will never know their names.

While not common, identification abuse happens far more frequently than many might imagine. Identification abuse is destroying, holding hostage, or denying a child their identification documents: birth certificate, driver’s license, Social Security card, and so forth. Homeschool kids (and alumni) like Alecia are particularly vulnerable to this form of abuse because of certain anti-government and pro-parental rights attitudes in totalistic homeschool subcultures.

According to Homeschool Alumni Reaching Out’s 2014 Survey of Adult Alumni of the Modern Christian Homeschool Movement, out of 3703 respondents, 3.65% (or 135 respondents) experienced identification abuse. Personal testimonies from homeschool alumni denied identification documents can be read at the Coalition for Responsible Home Education’s website. HARO’s 2015 Survey of Identification Abuse Within Homeschooling also found that the problem of ID abuse disproportionately impacts individuals who identify as female, which seems to correlate with families adhering to the Christian patriarchy movement.

Additional reading:

Identification Abuse Bill Inspired by Alecia Pennington Passes Texas House, Goes to Senate

HA Editorial Team8 Comments

By R.L. Stollar, HA Community Coordinato

After fleeing her family last September with the help of her grandparents, Alecia Pennington began speaking up about how her parents are allegedly refusing to help her get documents necessary for operating in society. Alecia created a video that went viral on YouTube with over a million views and launched the now-internationally-reported Help Me Prove It campaign, the Facebook page of which has over 7,000 likes.

According to a recent report by Fox News 7, Alecia continues to fight for her right to get a birth certificate. She obtained legal help through attorney Bill Morris. She also recruited legislative assistance from Texas State Representative Marsha Farney, who has proposed a bill, HB 2794, to help people like Alecia who are American citizens yet lacking necessary documentation. The bill would “allow individuals to petition for a delayed birth certificate in the county where they live, rather than in the county in which they were born. It would also make it a misdemeanor for a parent to refuse to sign an affidavit to help their child obtain a delayed birth certificate.” On Tuesday, May 11, 2015, HB 2794 passed the Texas House of Representatives. Yesterday, Wednesday, May 12, it was sent to the Senate for a vote.

Last February, Alecia reported that her father, James Pennington, was “willing to sign any documents, and give me any information he has concerning what I may need as proof.” However, in the recent Fox News 7 report, James goes on record opposing Representative Farney’s bill, calling it “misguided” and “draconian.” Fortunately, Alecia’s grandmother, Lee Southworth, stands by Alecia. Southworth says that they have put in “thousands of hours” of work thus far attempting to obtain Alecia’s birth certificate.

Alecia’s situation has drawn international attention to a problem that HA’s parent non-profit Homeschool Alumni Reaching Out (HARO) has termed identification abuse. Identification abuse is destroying, holding hostage, or denying a child their identification documents: birth certificate, driver’s license, Social Security card, and so forth. Homeschool kids (and alumni) like Alecia are particularly vulnerable to this form of abuse because of certain anti-government and pro-parental rights attitudes in totalistic homeschool subcultures. According to HARO’s 2014 Survey of Adult Alumni of the Modern Christian Homeschool Movement, out of 3703 respondents, 3.65% (or 135 respondents) experienced some form of identification abuse. Numerous testimonies from homeschool alumni denied identification documents can be seen at the Coalition for Responsible Home Education’s website. HARO’s 2015 Survey of Identification Abuse Within Homeschooling also found that the problem of identification abuse disproportionately impacts individuals who identify as female; this disproportionate impact seems to correlate with families adhering to the ideology of Christian patriarchy.

Additional reading: