There’s going to be a public apology. And payment of $275,000 in lawyers’ fees. And training in “religious liberty” for school officials in the Everett, Washington, district.
All for their public animus toward a Christian education organization.
They had tried to make in hard for parents to allow their children to attend a release-time program on Christianity, by forcing elementary students “to keep Bibles concealed in envelopes” and demanding that parents submit permission slips every week.
Joel Penton, founder and CEO of LifeWise Academy, told Fox News Digital that parents described the emotional toll of the Everett School District’s demands.
“I also heard from parents that their 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,” Penton said.
A report at Fox explained LifeWise Academy, which provides privately funded Bible instruction to public school students during the school day with parental permission, filed suit after Everett officials assembled a list of restrictions and demands.
“Then 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.”
“And then they also told students that if they received any worksheets or even a Bible at our program, when they came back to the school, that those had to come back in sealed envelopes so that other students wouldn’t be exposed to them,” Penton charged.
He accused the school of meaning to shut down the Christian program with its permission slip practice.
“To tell them that they had to personally bring in a permission slip each and every week just made it really impractical for a lot of parents, and I know there are many who are frustrated about that,” he said.
A federal judge previously granted a preliminary injunction against the school, LifeWise reported, and now a settlement has been reached, requiring “changes to district policies, religious liberty training for school board members, a public written apology posted on the district’s website for six months and $275,000 in attorney’s fees, according to the organization.”
The district admitted, “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.”
The school told Fox, “There were no changes to the policy,” but the guidelines “have been updated to comply with the terms of the settlement.”
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[ H/T WorldNetDaily ]
