An organization that provides Bible programs to public school children is suing a Washington state school district, accusing authorities of unfairly targeting Christian programs.
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Lifewise Academy CEO Joel Penton told CBN News that his organization allows parents to opt-in to have their children removed.e Lunch, recess, and other unnecessary time from public schools during the day.
The children then receive a Bible lesson before returning to their respective schools. Launched in 2019, LifeWise operates in hundreds of schools and is independently funded. This is the Release Time Religious Instruction Program, which was legalized in 1952 when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Zolak v. Clauson that public school students could be released during school hours to attend religious classes.
“We’ve been growing rapidly over the last few years, and we launched a program in Everett, Wash., that went really well last year,” Penton said. “Dozens of families were involved, and some individuals complained to the school board…One gentleman on the school board in particular was upset about these things, and they enacted some really discriminatory rules.”
He continued, “They have updated their policies and changed the rules for us. Therefore, unlike other student organizations, we are not currently able to attend school-related events like fairs where kids enroll in programs like ours and learn new things.”
Mr Penton said Lifewise was “chosen”. He said that in addition to allegedly preventing organizations from participating in these official club events, Lifewise is now required to obtain weekly parental permission slips from families who wish to opt-in.
Penton said this is typically a one-time permit given at the beginning of a new school year.
“They have now changed the rules where kids have to bring their permit every week,” he explained. “Not only that, but our parents say we have to turn in our permits every week…This is clearly a roadblock that our parents are trying to get us out of, because it’s unreasonable for them.”
Penton insisted other clubs were not asked to do the same. He said 1,000 schools will use Lifewise this school year, but no other schools in the country require such permission.
The third issue Penton mentioned, which he called “almost comically discriminatory,” is a policy that reportedly requires students who leave Lifewise during the day and return to school to place all materials, including Bibles, in “sealed envelopes.”
“It seems impossible that it could even be real, but it was an envelope sealed as if the substance was dangerous and could infect other children,” Penton said.
He believes the school board changed its policy to “single out” Lifewise.
“This seems like a clear attempt to effectively shut down the program,” Penton said. “So we tried to address this issue really quietly. … We tried to go to the schools and very quietly say, ‘You know, this is discrimination. We shouldn’t do this. We have a constitution in this country.’ And they didn’t accept that.”
Penton went to First Liberty Institute, a conservative law firm, for help. A letter pushing back the policy reportedly did not get the response First Liberty had hoped for.
So Lifewise filed a federal lawsuit challenging the district’s policy. Penton said parents feel targeted by the district’s actions and are working to ensure those actions are reversed.
“As you can imagine, parents are upset about this, especially since we were trying to do this in a way that didn’t make them uncomfortable,” he said. “Kids whose parents choose to participate in the program want to study the Bible in silence.”
Ultimately, Penton said, Lifewise wants families to have full access to the program “in a non-discriminatory manner.” He hopes that normal policy will be restored.
“We’re not looking for a fight,” Penton said. “We are trying to teach the Bible to our children.”
CBN News reached out to the Everett Public Schools Board of Directors for comment, but had not yet received a response at the time of publication. Everett Public Schools spokeswoman Harmony Weinberg told the Herald she could not comment further on the lawsuit.
We will update the story as new developments occur.
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