Religious Freedom Victory in Washington for Bible Education Program

A Washington state school district settled a lawsuit from LifeWise Academy after its school board publicly attacked the Christian organization and restricted participation in its Bible education program.

First Liberty’s lawsuit on LifeWise’ behalf detailed Everett Public Schools’ hostility toward the academy, which simply instructs students – who attend voluntarily with their parents’ permission – about the Bible and Christianity. 

In a vitriolic screed at a public school board meeting, board Director Charles Adkins said he held “animus toward LifeWise” and accused it of being a white supremacist and Christian nationalist organization working “to bring about an authoritarian theocracy.” 

Adkins alleged that LifeWise sought to “snuff out the cultures, religion, and language of native kids and other kids of color.”

That’s a lot of venom and anger about teaching children the Bible. 

Adkins vilified Christian doctrine about God’s male-female design for marriage, saying: 

I want to make it very, extremely, abundantly clear, that yes, I do in fact hold animus toward LifeWise Academy. … It is an organization of homophobic bullies who are active and willing participants in the efforts to bring about an authoritarian theocracy. … [W]hat I find offensive and ridiculous is their anti-gay agenda. Their curriculum teaches that any relationship outside a man and a woman is a sin.

In addition, the district showed deep hostility toward the Christian program, treating it differently from other school groups and creating obstacles for LifeWise, parents and students: 

• While other school clubs and groups advertised by taking part in a community fair or displaying flyers, LifeWise was not allowed. 

• Parents had to sign permission slips every week for their children to attend – rather than signing one form for the entire semester. 

• Students who attended had to hide religious education materials in an envelope in their backpacks. 

• Students could not read their Bibles during free-reading times. 

As First Liberty commented: 

While students are free to read Spider Man comics about Peter Parker, the District prohibits them from reading about Peter the Apostle. This violates the rights of LifeWise parents to direct the religious education of their children.

The religious freedom legal aid firm first sent a letter to the Everett Public Schools Board of Directors, asking them to change their policies. But they refused, so First Liberty, along with Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP, filed suit.

U.S. District Court Judge Lauren King issued a preliminary injunction against the district, ruling it had engaged in viewpoint discrimination in its treatment of LifeWise. 

That’s when the Everett Public School Board decided to settle the case. 

First Liberty explained the terms of the agreement: 

The settlement … requires the Board to undergo religious liberty training, make changes to the District’s policies governing religious activities, issue a public written apology for its actions visible for six months, and pay $275,000 in attorney’s fees.

First Liberty will train the school board about religious freedom in public education, and the apology includes this message: 

The District recognizes that comments made at various Board meetings that concerned LifeWise, including by Directors, were offensive and hurtful to the families participating in LifeWise programming. For that, the District and its Board of Directors offer a sincere apology. We recognize that these statements negatively affected the exercise of your faith. 

The organization notes that release-time religious instruction is perfectly legal. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Zorach v. Clauson, back in 1952, that parents may have their children released from school for religious instruction. This does not violate the First Amendment’s establishment clause.

Groups like LifeWise must simply meet three requirements for this: Parents must give their permission, instruction must be privately funded and group must meet off school property. 

On the contrary, as First Liberty explained in its lawsuit against Everett Public Schools, the release-time religious instruction aims “to develop students’ character through Biblical teachings, cultivating virtues such as patience, love, kindness, respect, and gratitude.” 

This is exactly what U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito predicted when the Court redefined marriage and the family in Obergefell to mean something it had never meant before: 

The decision will also have other important consequences. It will be used to vilify Americans who are unwilling to assent to the new orthodoxy. … if they repeat those views in public, they will risk being labeled as bigots and treated as such by governments, employers, and schools.

Justice Alito’s comments were prescient. Again and again, Christians have had to stand up to government and businesses to keep our First Amendment freedoms. We’re grateful to groups like LifeWise Academy that stand up to bullies like Everett Public Schools and for groups like First Liberty that defend them. 

Related articles and resources: 

Learn more about LifeWise Academy and First Liberty. 

Read the full apology from Everett Public Schools. 

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