LifeWise can resume Bible program with Westerville students -- once legal issues resolved
Cole BehrensBefore a large crowd, Westerville City school board on Monday agreed that LifeWise Academy could resume teaching the Bible to students off-campus during school lunch hours — after liability and compliance issues are resolved.
Board members said that attorneys for the school district and LifeWise need to reach a memorandum of understanding that LifeWise is liable for students once they take them from school grounds and transport them elsewhere for Bible studies.
The board voted at a late August meeting to suspend religious release time until Monday, with members citing concerns about LifeWise having parents sign forms relieving the Christian organization of liability for their students and whether that liability would then pass to the district. The board was also concerned about guidance received from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that school lunch meals could not be taken away from the school campus for non-curricular events.
Board President Kristina Meyer said Monday that while she is concerned about the disruptions caused to the school day by religious release, the issue at hand with the suspension was only related to liability and compliance concerns.
"This is with our lawyers. Know that, honestly, we have been spending so much time on this," Meyer said.
Superintendent Angie Hamberg told those in attendance that the district has been in conversation with its attorneys and that its legal team is not "yet comfortable with making a recommendation" about the policy.
"While we appreciate LifeWise Academy's urgency, we want to make sure we've done our due diligence and ensuring that policy compliance," Hamberg said.
Jennifer Jury, program director for LifeWise in Westerville, said LifeWise has removed the portion of the student release form waiving liability for the organization, saying that it now assumes "liability for all students in our care." Jury also said LifeWise is willing to work with the district on reimbursements for food provided from the district, and said questions about that "are not a reason" to continue suspending the policy.
"Since all the board's stated questions and concerns about LifeWise's compliance seem to have been addressed ... We're excited to hear that (the religious release) policy will go back into effect at the conclusion of this meeting," Jury said during public comment.
Supporters, opponents offer differing views on Bible education for students
The school board room was at capacity with supporters and opponents of the religious release time. Many LifeWise supporters wore red shirts, while many opposed to religious release wore black shirts.
The public speaking portion of the meeting went nearly two hours, with people from each side applauding their speakers, and talking points eventually repeated by both sides.
Lifewise supporters said they believed that the program offered significant benefits to children receiving Bible education and that it teaches children that they are loved as humans. Nearly 300 students in the Westerville district of more than 14,000 attended LifeWise during the last school year.
Erin Taylor, a LifeWise instructor and former public school teacher, said those involved in instructing the program "take great care to be compliant, inviting and positive in our attitude toward every adult and student with whom we interact."
"We're skilled at listening to the students, and encouraging them to apply the principles and character qualities we've been learning together. We listen, and guide and they open up," Taylor said.
Many opposed to LifeWise and religious release time said that students are being encouraged to recruit new students into the program and that religious education has no place in public school education. Others expressed concerns about LifeWise's conservative teachings on sexuality, gender and nontraditional families.
Scott Zeune, a parent of a Westerville student, said he was concerned about what he said was the secretiveness of what is being taught and "how divisive this program is." While he said LifeWise frames itself as a choice for parents, he said he "already chose to have my child attend a school with no religious affiliation" by sending them to public school.
"Even if I'm being generous and I give those involved in the program the benefit of the doubt that their intentions are good, the program clearly causes division, which has been evident in this very room," Zeune said. "So to believe this division has not already crept into the schools and does not impact children's relationships, actions, judgments and sense of belonging is just naive."
What is religious release time?
Under Ohio law, "released time" means a period of time during which a student is excused from school to attend a course in religious instruction conducted by a private entity off school district property.
In the United States, individual school districts may offer the option of released time for religious instruction in compliance with the 1948 U.S. Supreme Court case, McCollum v. Board of Education and the 1952 decision, Zorach v. Clauson, The Dispatch previously reported.
Legislation proposed in the Ohio General Assembly would make it mandatory for school districts across the state to allow religious released time.
This summer, Penton testified in favor of House Bill 445, which would require public school districts to excuse students for off-campus religious instruction.
Penton said during a hearing on the bill that the organization works with 200 schools across Ohio and 23 school districts have turned down LifeWise Academy in Ohio.
What is LifeWise?
LifeWise, founded in 2018, is an event-based nonprofit ministry with a stated mission to reach public school students with Bible education during school hours that is off school property, privately funded and parent-permitted, often during an elective class period.
LifeWise is currently renovating a former Hilliard scuba-diving facility once home to an 18-foot-deep pool, which will become the headquarters for the nonprofit when completed, The Dispatch previously reported. LifeWise purchased the former Aquatic Adventures building located by Interstate 270 off Cemetery Road in Hilliard for nearly $3 million.
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