US school district apologises over ‘hide your Bible’ diktat

A Washington state school district has ditched a policy that forced pupils to hide Christian literature received at a school-hours Bible club.

Everett Public Schools, which serves over 20,000 students, introduced a number of policy changes that LifeWise Academy — a Christian organisation that delivers off-campus Bible classes — said deliberately discriminated against its work.

After the organisation launched legal action, the district agreed to amend its policies, pay $275,000 in legal fees, publicly apologise and undergo religious liberty training.

Shamed for believing

Speaking to Fox News, LifeWise Academy CEO Joel Penton explained: “We serve students and families all over the nation, and one of our programmes is in Everett Washington and our programme had been operating for a couple of years serving dozens of students, dozens of families, everything going smoothly.

“But 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 programme there.”

These included, he said, banning the group from community fairs and telling 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 said: “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.”

‘Tremendous victory’

In a statement released after the settlement was made public, Penton emphasised: “Religious release time programs such as LifeWise should be accessible to all families on a consistent basis.

“This program exists because parents in Everett and across the country are asking for it. Families see the positive impact that Bible-based character education during school hours can have on student behaviour and academic performance.

“We simply want to protect a program that is already serving dozens of local families and ensure that parental freedom is respected.”

Stephanie Taub, Senior Counsel at First Liberty Institute, said: “We are grateful to have reached this settlement on behalf of LifeWise. This is a tremendous victory not only for our clients but for all religious release time programs.”