On
Without a birth certificate, Social Security number, medical records, or a school record, Pennington stated, she was effectively excluded from graduating to legal adulthood despite having reached that milestone more than a year earlier:
This leaves me with nothing to prove my identity or citizenship. I am now 19 years old and I'm unable to get a driver's license, get a job, go to college, get on a plane, get a bank account, or vote.
The chain of events as relayed by Pennington did not necessarily beggar belief as described. According to the 19-year-old, she was born at home (with a midwife present), and
no birth certificate was issued. She claimed her parents never filed for a Social Security number on her behalf, and that she never attended any school (public or private). Furthermore, Pennington said she was never hospitalized and thus lacked the medical records that would have been generated had such a visit occurred.
A blog post made by a woman named Lisa Pennington in
On Wednesday, September 24th my life was changed forever. My
We did have a meeting with our daughter about a week after she left and it became obvious when we agreed to give her everything she was asking for that she did not intend to come home. She had sent us a list of things she wanted to change at home, but because we agreed to all of the changes and she still won't come
I ask myself, "How can I help her if she won't tell me the truth?"
Alecia claimed her parents were uncooperative in facilitating her attempts to establish her identity and obtain the necessary documentation she required to enroll in college or get a job. According to a homeschool advocacy blog, Pennington's claims aren't unusual and affect between three and four percent of homeschooled children:
Sadly, Alecia is not alone in her predicament. According to HARO's 2014 Survey of Adult Alumni of the Modern Christian Homeschool Movement, out of 3703 respondents, 3.65% (or
Pennington summed up her efforts to date in a document published to a Facebook page she created to crowdsource assistance in establishing her identity:
On
One of Pennington's siblings commented on a post made to her Facebook page and claimed "[t]he reason why Alecia is having so much trouble is that she is unwilling to have any kind of relationship with my parents and meet with them to work this out."
Last updated: 11 February 2015
