Jury Rules, “You Can't Hide Your Light Under A Bushel” Or In A Backpack

“Religious discrimination has no place in public schools” 

So, when a Washington school district decided to require that children had to keep their Bibles in sealed envelopes in their backpacks they were making a grave mistake. A jury reminded them of Jesus’s parable, and they have agreed to pay $275,000 in attorney’s fees and to publicly apologize after losing a religious discrimination lawsuit.

That’s not all. Everett Public Schools has agreed to provide religious liberty training for its school board and to revise its policies regarding religious activities. This decision comes in collaboration with First Liberty Institute, which represented the plaintiffs along with Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner. Additionally, the school will display a written apology publicly for six months.

In the settlement announcement, First Liberty senior counsel Stephanie Taub said, “Religious discrimination has no place in public schools.”

The episode focuses on LifeWise Academy, a nonprofit that offers voluntary, privately funded Bible education off school grounds during school hours with parental permission.

According to LifeWise, the district mandated that all students returning from the program keep their materials, including Bibles, sealed in envelopes within their backpacks. Additionally, families were required to provide weekly parental reauthorization. LifeWise was also excluded from community events and flyers.

LifeWise CEO Joel Penton said, “Parents and students deserve to be treated with respect, regardless of their religious beliefs.”

The claims included requiring permission slips, sealed envelopes, and restricting LifeWise’s access to certain district facilities just because it was a religious organization

It’s evident that the district made things more difficult for students and parents than necessary. In fact, the district acknowledged that a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction after determining the plaintiffs were likely to succeed on their First Amendment claims.

The claims included requiring permission slips, sealed envelopes, and restricting LifeWise’s access to certain district facilities just because it was a religious organization.

First Liberty also said board member Charles Adkins publicly vilified LifeWise by accusing it of pursuing a theocratic agenda.

In its public apology, the district acknowledged that the remarks at board meetings harmed families.

“We recognize that these statements negatively affected the exercise of your faith.”

The district conceded that settling the dispute allowed all involved to avoid additional costs. It also published guidelines on how parents could request off-campus religious instruction during lunch or recess without disrupting classroom time.

What's really disturbing about this case is not only the actions the district took to make life harder for students and parents, but also that they knew what they were doing was wrong and continued anyway.

This is only one incident of this kind of harassment; how many more are happening right now? Christianity is under attack because belief provides strength, and the left can’t control what we believe. They want us weak and subservient, and that is not what Christianity is about.