Appeal for funds for a court - September 2017
Sudbury School Ammersee appeals for funds for a court hearing that will determine how democratic schools in Bavaria will fare in the near future
Dear partner schools and friends,
The Sudbury School Ammersee asks you for urgent assistance!
This situation affects not only us, but the entire democratic school movement in Bavaria: This has been suppressed and 
thwarted for years by the Bavarian government. The Sudbury School Ammersee was closed down by the authorities in September 2016. School initiatives in Ingolstadt, Augsburg, Munich, Regensburg and Nuremberg cannot start up, despite a great deal of interest being shown and many applicants, because they are being systematically prevented from doing so by the State of Bavaria. This is nothing new in this country: In earlier days, the first Montessori and Waldorf schools also experienced massive opposition.
The court case in which the Sudbury School Ammersee is taking action against the Free State of Bavaria will probably be heard in November or December. This case is of strategic importance: If we win it, it would represent a major breakthrough for the democratic schools movement here and it would open the gates for a large number of initiatives. The big problem: After 1½ years in which we have been able to keep our heads above water with donations, the money is running out! That means: We need financial support urgently! About 30,000 euros are needed for legal costs and to enable us to marshal our forces in the most effective way. We needed it now or lately at the end of Oktober 2017. Without this, we will not be able to pursue the legal battle – and the authorities would get their way purely through being able to sit it out! We can’t allow this to happen!
The core of the case will be concerned with proving that the Sudbury School is indeed in harmony with Bavarian legislation. In fact, the law concerned is wonderful: It simply requires that schools ‘impart knowledge and skills as well as developing the spirit and the body, the heart and the character’. The problem is that the authorities interpret this in a very strange way. They distil it down to a simple formula: Pupils must be able to do mathematics, German and English!
There is an urgent need for the state to rethink and grasp the new attitude to learning that is becoming increasingly current in the general population.
In view of this, we reckon that we have a chance of winning the case even though our appeal to suspend the decision to withdraw approval was rejected in the course of an intermediate appeal. To date, decisions have been taken on a purely formal basis: We have not had an opportunity to put forward our case personally and in depth. We have excellent reasons and arguments to show that we did indeed comply with the agreements made with the authorities and that we are in full compliance with current legislation. In some cases pupils who had never attended school were able to regain a love of learning in our school, the school was flourishing and several pupils have already obtained state-recognized qualifications.
We also communicated a number of suggestions to the authorities as to
how an agreement may be reached after all; amongst other things we
elaborated an experimental school model that was to be monitored by
international experts, researchers from a Munich university and state
inspectors. The high-powered team was already assembled and waiting to
be deployed. It is difficult to imagine a greater degree of transparency
and cooperativeness – but the authorities still rejected the proposal.
We ask you for a show of solidarity at this decisive moment: Please support us! You will be helping the Sudbury School, its pupils (of whom many are very unhappy and aching to see the school reopened), the parents who feel disenfranchised and oppressed by the authorities – as well as hundreds of other students elsewhere in Bavaria who would at last have the opportunity to attend a democratic school if we can succeed in court.
Heartfelt thanks,
your pupils, parents, staff and Executive Board members of the Sudbury School Ammersee!
Our bank account for donations: Stadtsparkasse München IBAN: DE12 7015 0000 0037 1083 70 BIC: SSKM DE MM
If you need further information you can find our latest press releases here:
http://www.sudbury-schule-ammersee.de/pressemitteilungen.html
here is a timeline that summarizes what has happened so far: http://www.sudbury-schule-ammersee.de/facts-in-english.html
Or call us personally:
Please pass this appeal on within your networks.
Dear Friends and Supporters - bad news - Januar 2016
bad news: [nbsp
The Administrative Court has rejected our current appeal, which was about the school being able to continue operations at least until final adjudication of our appeal against the authorities closing down the school.
This means the school must remain closed. The main case against the closure is continuing, but no date has been named regarding adjudication.
This decision has come as a major blow to the whole school community! Lots of the children who were happy at the Sudbury School Ammersee are having a bad time. We still find the decision to close the school groundless, and the closure has already caused a great deal of damage!
Nevertheless, we are determined to keep going and rally round for our school! We invested nine years in founding the school prior to getting approval, and we certainly won't be giving up now! We are now investigating other legal options and other paths that may help us achieve our aim (political, public awareness, networking).
As soon as we have more information to pass on, we will let you know.
It is great to know that you are still rooting for us — sticking together and supporting each other are now more important than ever!
Your Sudbury School community
