The Freedom From Religion Foundation is insisting that the Buckeye Valley Local School District halt LifeWise Academy’s stealing of education hours from public school students.
A concerned community member reported that Buckeye Valley Middle School in Delaware, Ohio, hosts study halls for LifeWise Academy’s students on school property, supervised not by school staff members but by LifeWise volunteers. The local LifeWise chapter’s website suggests that those study halls may include bible instruction. Other students reportedly must attend “exploratories” all five days of the week. The school also reportedly allowed LifeWise special access during its Aug. 15, 2023, open house, where LifeWise representatives handed material out to parents. FFRF was told that no other outside organizations had such access.
“If Buckeye Valley Middle School is hosting bible classes, it is violating the Establishment Clause” of the First Amendment, FFRF Patrick O’Reiley Legal Fellow Hirsh M. Joshi writes to Buckeye Valley Local District Superintendent Rick Stranges.
Public schools may not allow LifeWise special access to run a study hall for LifeWise students on school property, FFRF emphasizes. A public school violates the Constitution when it promotes religion by giving special access to the school to Lifewise volunteers and encourages students to participate in religious release time classes by offering them exemptions from standard class requirements when they do so.
Buckeye Valley Middle School may not allow private religious group employees to enter the school for religious instruction during regular hours set aside for secular teaching. Additionally, inappropriately favoring Christian release time programs needlessly excludes the students and families who practice a minority religion, as well as those students who are a part of the 49 percent of Generation Z that is religiously unaffiliated. By promoting LifeWise’s classes and allowing LifeWise unique access to the school, the district is sending a clear message that it favors not only religion over nonreligion but also students who subscribe to a particular brand of Christianity over members of all others.
FFRF asserts that to protect students’ First Amendment rights, the district must cease any special treatment for LifeWise Academy and the students who attend it.
“This practice has been unconstitutional for over 75 years,” adds Joshi. “We hope the district puts an end to its bible instruction.”
FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor agrees.
“Allowing a religious institution to eat away at the valuable time public school students have is just unacceptable,” she states. “LifeWise frequently oversteps lines clearly drawn out by the Constitution. That’s why organizations like FFRF need to stay active to keep public schools secular.”
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a national nonprofit organization with 40,000 members across the country, including over 1,000 members in Ohio. Its purposes are to protect the constitutional principle of separation between state and church, and to educate the public on matters relating to nontheism.
