(Talon News) -- A homeschooling Massachusetts family clashed with workers of that state's Department of Social Services last week when the agency tried to force their children to take a standardized test. At 7:45 a.m. Thursday, DDS workers and police came to the Waltham, MA residence of George and Kim Bryant to transport the couple's two children George Nicholas, 15, and Nyssa, 13, to a hotel to administer a test to determine their educational level.

The Bryants refused to allow their children to be taken, and the police were reluctant to force the issue. Waltham Youth Officer Detective James Auld said, "We are simply here to prevent a breach of the peace, we will not physically remove the children."

DDS worker Susan Etscovitz adamantly told the Bryants, "We have legal custody of the children and we will do with them as we see fit." A court awarded legal custody of the children to DDS in 2001, but physical custody remained with the Bryants. The Waltham couple was ruled unfit because they did not file educational plans or determine a grading system for the children.

George Bryant was quoted saying, "There have been threats all along. Most families fall to that bullying by the state and the legal system." He continued, "But this has been a six-year battle between the Waltham Public Schools and our family over who is in control of the education of our children."

Bryant expressed his intention to continue to fight when he said, "In the end, the law of this state will protect us."

Kenneth Pontes, area director of DDS said that it is possible that the children will be removed from their home, but that would be a last course of action. Etscovitz expressed a firmer stance saying, "No one wants these children to be put in foster homes. The best course of action would be for [the Bryants] to instruct the children to take the test."

The Framingham Juvenile Court issued a court order at 1:00 p.m., and the Bryants drove their children to the hotel. But the children refused to take the test. Nyssa said, "We don't want to take the test. We have taken them before, and I don't think they are a fair assessment of what we know."

The Bryants believe that the city and the state do not have the legal right to force their children to take standardized tests. George Bryant pointed out, "Private school students do not take standardized tests. Why should our children be subjected to this, against their will?"

A Friday court hearing to determine a change of custody of the Bryant children was indefinitely postponed late Thursday. Both sides agree that the children have not been abused mentally, physically, sexually, or emotionally, but those are not the factors that will determine if George Nicholas and Nyssa will remain with their parents or placed in foster care.