A federal judge has partially granted a preliminary injunction against Everett Public Schools in a lawsuit accusing the Washington school district of discriminating against LifeWise Academy, a national nonprofit that provides off-campus religious instruction to public school students.
In an order issued April 24 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, U.S. District Judge Lauren King said that LifeWise and co-plaintiff Sarah Sweeny, a parent and LifeWise staff member, were likely to succeed on key First Amendment claims challenging the district’s restrictions on the group.
The court ordered Everett Public Schools to let LifeWise participate in the district’s community resource fairs; allow the group to display printed flyers in schools where secular organizations are allowed to do so; permit Emerson Elementary School students to attend LifeWise using semester-long permission slips that identify up to four specifically named individuals who may pick them up; and allow Sweeny’s children to read LifeWise reading materials during times when students may read other non-scholastic materials.
The order follows a complaint filed in December by First Liberty Institute and Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP on behalf of LifeWise, alleging school officials barred the organization from participating in its community fair and from displaying informational flyers in school lobbies next to flyers for secular organizations.
The lawsuit also argued the district placed a “burdensome” permission slip policy on the organization that required parents to submit a new written authorization every single week for students to attend the program.
School officials were also accused of forcing students to keep any LifeWise materials, including Bibles, hidden in envelopes in their backpacks, making them inaccessible for the rest of the school day, even during free periods when students are allowed to read secular materials such as comic books.
Attorneys for LifeWise argued in their complaint that these restrictions violate decades of legal precedent. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld religious-instruction release as constitutional in the 1952 ruling Zorach v. Clauson, provided the programs are held off-campus, use no public funds and have parental consent.
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First Liberty also said that school officials displayed hostility toward the Bible club. After LifeWise sent a letter to the Everett School Board in November, board member Charles Adkins admitted at a Dec. 9 board meeting he held “animus” toward the religious group.
“I want to make it very, extremely, abundantly clear, that, yes, I do in fact hold animus toward LifeWise Academy,” Adkins said. “It is an organization of homophobic bullies who are active and willing participants in the efforts to bring about an authoritarian theocracy.”
The court order stopped short of granting all of LifeWise’s requests, including expressly ordering access to the district’s electronic flyer platform, Peachjar; allowing students to be released to LifeWise Inc. rather than named adults; granting a yearlong permission slip for parents; and adopting the group’s broader request to stop enforcing any requirements not imposed on other organizations to whom the school releases custody of students.
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Attorneys representing the group celebrated the ruling.
“Targeting the operation of an out-of-school program just because it’s religious is a direct violation of the First Amendment,” Jeremy Dys, senior counsel at First Liberty Institute, said in a press release. “We are grateful that the court has put a halt to the open and intentional acts of discrimination toward LifeWise by the Everett School District.”
“Anti-religious sentiment by government officials — particularly when coupled with the adoption of facially discriminatory policies — has no place in a free society,” Barbara Smith Tyson, a LifeWise attorney and partner at the law firm Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner, LLP, also said.
“The court held what the law requires: Everett School District may not subject LifeWise to uniquely harmful treatment simply because it is religious. Elementary school children, like all Americans, enjoy the right to receive religious instruction without fear or favor.”
Everett Public Schools gave the following statement:
“Everett Public Schools is in the process of reviewing the court order with legal counsel and evaluating the next steps. This case is still in active litigation and is not the final order from the court. The district will continue to follow the legal process and the orders from the court. Everett Public Schools remains committed to serving all students.”
