Judge Blocks School District Policies Targeting Release-Time Bible Classes
The leader of a nationwide Christian program that offers Bible teaching to public school students during the school day is praising a recent court ruling that pushed back against what he calls unfair restrictions. This case centers on parental rights and the right to offer voluntary religious instruction outside school property during school hours. The fight is about more than paperwork; it is about whether Christians can freely disciple children in their communities.
Joe Penton, who heads the program, described their work in plain terms. “We provide Bible education for public school students during school hours,” Penton said. “We take kids under release time — religious instruction laws and the Supreme Court ruling — we take kids off school property during the school day, teach them a Bible lesson, and bring them back to school.”
The chapter in Everett, Washington, was described by Penton as “going incredibly well.” The program grew fast because families wanted solid Bible teaching for their children during the school week. When local officials began to single them out, parents did not sit quietly by.
“[There are] dozens of families involved, making a big impact on those kids and the community,” he said. “However, there were some who, I guess you could say, want to stir up trouble, and we have those who oppose our efforts because, as you can imagine, we teach the Bible.” The backlash came in policy form rather than argument, and that mattered legally.
Penton says restrictions arrived that clearly targeted the ministry. “We started seeing policies come down that were specifically targeting us and discriminating against our program,” Penton said, offering up some examples. Those policies shifted routine permissions and access in ways that singled out the Bible class.
One example removed Lifewise from community outreach settings where other groups signed up students. “The community fairs where every organization that serves students would come together to kind of sign kids up and promote what they do to students, all of a sudden, we were not allowed to be there anymore.” Excluding a ministry from neutral events sends a loud message to families and schools alike.
Another change made parents jump through unusual hoops to enroll their children, unlike other extracurricular providers. “[That policy is] going to effectively shut down your interests if you have to go into the school office every single week to sign your kid out for this class that lasts all semester,” Penton said. Practical barriers like that are often the point: make participation so difficult that attendance evaporates.
Perhaps the most absurd rule required student materials to be hidden from view after class. “They passed a policy that, if children brought anything back from Lifewise, whether it be a worksheet or whether it be a Bible, because that’s what we study at LifeWise, [it] had to come back in sealed envelopes so that other kids couldn’t see them,” he said. “And so if a child wanted to read their Lifewise Bible during study hall or during a free reading time, they wouldn’t be allowed to do so. They could read ‘Harry Potter,’ but they wouldn’t be able to read the Bible.”
Families challenged the district in court after attempts to resolve the dispute locally failed. The court has issued a preliminary injunction halting those discriminatory policies while the case moves forward. “With this preliminary injunction, there’s still the court date, there’s still the ultimate judgment to come,” Penton said. “But what it does mean is that there’s enough evidence and whatnot that the court said [to] the school, ‘You need to go ahead, at least until then, you need to reverse a lot of these policies.’”
Penton made clear the ministry did not seek conflict but would defend its mission when pushed. “We do not go looking for these fights,” he said. “We do not go looking for controversy, but we are finding that every time that happens, more people hear about LifeWise, and so we’re grateful and we get opportunities like this to share.”
This dispute is one more example of how religious liberty and parental authority are being tested in public schools. Christians who care about faithful teaching must pay attention and be ready to use every lawful means to protect their children’s access to the Gospel. Courts sometimes become the last resort when school officials refuse to respect conscience and the clear rights of families.