Parents back Everett district after LifeWise lawsuit threat
EVERETT — Community members gathered at a school board meeting in Everett on Tuesday to voice their concerns over a controversial midday Bible education program after legal teams representing the program threatened to sue Everett Public Schools.
The program, LifeWise Academy, currently operates near Emerson Elementary in Everett. It opened in January, the first to begin in the Puget Sound area.
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Some parents have previously spoken out against the program at board meetings over the past few months. But on Tuesday, dozens nearly filled the board room following a Nov. 19 letter, sent to the Everett Public Schools Board of Directors, that threatened legal action if the board didn’t relax a number of rules surrounding released-time religious instruction.
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Jennifer Philips McLellan, a parent at the district, told the school board Tuesday that “the majority do not want you to back down” and that the district has “exercised your legal right to set the boundaries which LifeWise is bound to follow, and you do so under the authority of both state and federal case law.”
https://www.heraldnet.com/news/parents-back-everett-district-after-lifewise-lawsuit-threat/