Late last week, the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington issued the preliminary injunction halting the Everett, Washington school district's discriminatory regulations targeted towards LifeWise Academy, a nonprofit that provides Bible education to public school students during school hours.
Attorney Jeremy Dys of First Liberty Institute, the law firm representing LifeWise, has told AFN that it is a release time religious education program doing something that the Supreme Court has approved of since at least 1952.
"They pick up students at campus because the students' parents have decided they want to provide some religious education in addition to their regular education," he said. "LifeWise picks them up at campus, takes them somewhere off campus, gives them a lesson about the Bible, and takes them back to school for the rest of the day."
But some people find this program objectionable, and school board and community members in Everett have voiced their vile opinions against the program, accusing LifeWise of indoctrinating kids with "fascist theology" and comparing LifeWise to the Nazis driving around Germany and picking up people before taking them to certain locations.
"The school district has been making it much more difficult for LifeWise to operate, and frankly, just being unfair," said Dys.
For example, because LifeWise is religious, it has been excluded from community fairs, where organizations are invited to share about their programs, and parents can choose the ones their children can join.
First Liberty tried to resolve this matter before going to court. Last year, a letter was sent to the school board to address these issues, but Everett School District opted instead to continue discriminating against the religious program with burdensome permission slip requirements, exclusion from community fairs and advertising, and requiring the students to hide their Bible in a sealed envelope in their backpack when they return to class.
According to the federal court's decision, the "proximity in timing" between the hostile board member comments and the change in policy to target LifeWise, "arose from school board animus toward LifeWise."
The court concluded that the new policies were not neutral or generally applicable and found that the school district burdened LifeWise's religious expression.
Until this case is fully decided, the Everett School District cannot enforce these policies against LifeWise Academy.
