A Washington state school district must publicly apologize, pay $275,000 in attorney’s fees, and undergo religious liberty training after a lawsuit challenged policies that required elementary school students to hide their Bibles in sealed envelopes while at school and new policies made attending Bible study off campus a laborious task.
Joel Penton, founder and CEO of LifeWise Academy, told Fox News Digital that “children felt like they were being told they had to hide their faith when they were told they had to put their Bibles and things in envelopes as though it was something to be ashamed of, and I know that was very hurtful as well.”
According to an announcement by LifeWise Academy that offers a Bible-based character education program for students in the Everett School District, the agreement requires the district’s Board of Directors to undergo religious liberty training, make changes to district policies governing religious activities, issue a public written apology on the district’s website visible for six months, and pay $275,000 in attorney’s fees.
“This settlement is a welcome victory for Everett families who simply want the freedom to choose Bible education for their children,” Penton said. “Parents and students deserve to be treated with respect, regardless of their religious beliefs. We appreciate the district’s commitment to equal treatment and its agreement to issue a public apology. We look forward to moving ahead and continuing to serve the Everett community with Bible-based character education during school hours.”
Penton explained that LifeWise had operated unhindered for years within the Everett School District before the school board abruptly changed its policies.
“The school board changed some of their policies in some ways that were pretty transparently discriminatory and infringed on the religious liberty of our program there,” Penton said. “And some of those policy changes included requiring parents, instead of simply signing a permission slip one time for the entire semester, the entire year, they were requiring them to hand-bring in a permission slip each and every week, which was quite onerous.”
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The restrictions came amid openly hostile remarks from a school board member who publicly declared animus toward the Academy and grossly mischaracterized the program at a school board meeting, according to LifeWise.
First Liberty Institute and Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP filed the lawsuit on behalf of a LifeWise parent and staff member after the district imposed restrictions that singled out the program. Those restrictions included excluding LifeWise from community events and flyer displays, requiring burdensome weekly parental reauthorization, and requiring students to keep materials received at LifeWise, including Bibles, sealed in envelopes in their backpacks.
The district’s apology acknowledges the harm those comments caused. “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.”
