Allowing Ohio’s public school students an excused absence during class instruction hours for private religious instruction “can negatively impact schools’ educational goals,” an atheist advocacy group claims in a letter sent to more than 600 public school districts in Ohio.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation, which claims 1,000 members in Ohio, sent the letters as word spread that LifeWise Academy, an evangelical Christian program that helps churches set up “released time” off-campus religious instruction programs for schoolchildren, was expanding its efforts this year.
The group said that while Ohio law instructs districts “may” offer the excused absences, they’re not required to do so.
For its part, LifeWise issued a statement thanking the FFRF for letting the school districts know about their program, which it says is a five-year program to take students through the Bible.
“Our greatest obstacle is not enough people know about the amazing opportunity LifeWise offers students so we appreciate the FFRF investing their resources to help spread the word,” a spokesperson said via email. The atheist group, LifeWise said, “did a wonderful job pointing out released time religious instruction as an entirely legal option for schools and families.”
Allowing students “released time” to attend such programs was ratified by the Supreme Court in 1952, with the court ruling that such excused absences did not violate the constitutional ban on a state-sponsored religion.
Under the high court’s decision, the released time programs must be off-campus, privately funded, and parents must individually consent to a child’s attendance. No public funds or vehicles can transport students to or from the classes, according to the rules.
The atheist organization, based in Madison, Wisconsin, said in the letter it has “received several complaints from families in different school districts” alleging that schools did not provide “substantive lessons” to the students who do not attend the outside instruction.
The atheists also complained students who do not attend the released time programs “are inevitably singled out in the eyes of their peers.” The Christian students are encouraged “to proselytize their peers,” which FFRF said leads to “bullying.”
In a telephone interview, FFRF legal director Rebecca Markert said the group wanted to remind districts that “we do have a significant population in America that is identifying as non-religious or non-affiliated and that the population that those school districts are serving are largely serving these demographics.”
She said the FFRF goal is to “make sure that the constitutional rights of students to be also free from religious indoctrination in their public schools, is also still being abided by in our public schools.”
But attorney Holly Randall of First Liberty Institute, a public interest law firm representing LifeWise, said the group has little to fear from the anti-religion group.
“School districts in Ohio should ignore this bogus complaint from an anti-religion group that uses intimidation to silence people of faith,” she said via email. “The law is very clear that Ohio schools are free to partner with LifeWise to provide religious education to families that choose to participate.”
• Mark A. Kellner can be reached at mkellner@washingtontimes.com.