If Josh Duggar had been charged for his crimes of sexually assaulting minors and labeled a sex offender, the Duggars would have had a whole new problem on their hands.

Homeschool laws in Arkansas actually help protect children.

Homeschooling laws in Arkansas, the state the Duggar family resides, would have forbidden the Duggars from homeschooling their children if Jim Bob or Michelle Duggar had reported their son Josh Duggar’s crimes of sexual assault.

The homeschool law, No. 1787 of 2001, passed just one year before Josh’s crimes began reads as such:

6-15-508. Home schooling prohibited if a sex offender resides in the home. (a) No child may be home schooled if any person residing in the home with the child is required to register under the Sex and Child Offender Registration Act of 1997, § 12-12-901 et seq. (b) Upon petition to the sentencing court from the child’s parent or guardian, the sentencing court may enter a written order specifically waiving the restriction in subsection (a) of this section. (c) This section shall not apply if the child to be home schooled is the person registered under the Sex and Child Offender Registration Act of 1997, § 12-12-901 et seq. HISTORY: Acts 2001, No. 1787, § 1

This means had Jim Bob actually reported the assaults instead of only telling a friend –an Arkansas State Trooper who failed to report the crimes– then Josh would have either have needed to have been kicked out of the house or the family would have to stop homeschooling and send their children to either a public or private school.

This is a strong motivation for the Duggar parents to keep these crimes covered up, not only to save their family embarrassment, but because they are big homeschool advocates and potentially could not afford to send their entire clan to private school, and with their crazy religious beliefs, public school is just not an option the parents could live with.

But why would any family who advocates for homeschooling turn their children over and risk losing it all? How can you enforce such a law?

Jonny Scaramanga, a fellow Patheos blogger suggests that the state could enact a mandatory reporting law for parents, saying that “That might not have stopped Jim Bob covering this up, but it would make him liable for his failure of duty in this case.”

The fact that this law was not in place and the Duggars managed to keep the crimes hidden for so long means that the statute of limitation has expired and no charges will be filed against a now known sex offender.

Josh Duggar’s crimes.

Earlier this month, In Touch magazine reported about the crimes after police records were released to the public and Josh Duggar finally admitted to molesting the girls and stepped down from his job as executive director of the Family Research Council, a Christian lobbying group who works to overturn same-sex rights and teaches that homosexuals are dangerous pedophiles.

Josh Duggar’s crimes began in 2002 after a minor alerted Jim Bob about being touched inappropriately, and we would later learn that Josh molested five girls, four of whom are his sisters. Jim Bob, after reporting to a state trooper friend, and then told his church leaders who recommended a counseling program for his son, one that Jim Bob elected not to use and instead the family sent Josh to a friend’s house to do manual labor.

Further details continued to leak out over the following week with TMZ reporting:

According to the police report, Josh fondled the genitals and breasts of the girls, some of whom were sleeping, but sometimes they were interacting with him … in one case reading a book. There was another reported incident 9 months later. According to the police report, the police were not immediately contacted. Instead, Jim Bob, the dad, met with church elders and agreed Josh should be put in a treatment program. The police report says Josh’s mom, Michelle, said it wasn’t really a treatment center … they simply sent Josh to a guy who was remodeling a building to do manual labor.

The officer that Jim Bob told about the crimes was himself later convicted on child pornography charges and sentenced to 56 years in prison. The officer spoke this week and told In Touch magazine that Jim Bob had lied to him about the severity of the crimes and had he known how many girls Josh was molesting, he would have done his duty and reported it to the authorities.

It wasn’t until 2006 that the state became aware of these accusations after the family had been scheduled to appear on the Oprah show and someone had emailed the show’s producers to warn them about Josh’s behavior. Oprah’s producers emailed the information to local Arkansas authorities.

With Josh now resigned from the Family Research Council, all eyes are on TLC who only the day after the charges went public pulled the show from its lineup, but have yet to cancel the show permanently and some are suggesting they might not.

Even almost two weeks later this story is getting more and more strange as Christian right politicians and religious leaders come out in support of the Duggar family and more information leaks out about the great lengths Josh and his family went to in an attempt to keep these crimes a secret.

Parts of this article have been published previously.

(Image: Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar / YouTube Screenshot)