News Release
For Immediate Release: 12.18.25
Contact: John Manning, media@firstliberty.org
Direct: 972-941-4453
Washington School District Sued After Board Member Admits “Animus” Toward Release Time Bible Program
School board member levels hostile accusations against religious instruction, board adopts draconian regulations.
Everett, WA—First Liberty Institute and the law firm Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP filed a federal lawsuit against the Everett, Washington school district on behalf of LifeWise challenging its regulations for permitted release-time courses for students. The law firms argue that the regulations violate the First Amendment and impose subjective standards targeting religious groups. Recently, Director Charles Adkins publicly admitted animus toward LifeWise.
You can read the complaint here.
“Purposefully hindering the operation of an out-of-school program just because it’s religious is a direct violation of the First Amendment,” said Jeremy Dys, Senior Counsel at First Liberty Institute. “Now a member of the school board has admitted publicly that the board’s actions against LifeWise are out of intentional, hostility toward religion. School officials cannot prefer religion over nonreligion, nor may they throw obstacles in the path of parents simply trying to prepare their children for religious obligations.”
Joel Penton, CEO of LifeWise Academy said, “Religious release time programs such as LifeWise should be accessible to all families on a consistent basis. It is unfortunate that we have to bring this lawsuit to protect a program that is already being used by dozens of families in Everett.”
Barbara Smith Tyson, Partner and Co-Chair of the Appellate and Supreme Court Group at Bryan Cave Leighton Paiser LLP, said, “LifeWise affords devout parents the opportunity to ensure that their public school children obtain both educational opportunities on-campus and religious education off-campus. The school’s targeting of LifeWise for offering off-campus religious instruction to families who want it hurts those students and their families and offends our most basic constitutional freedoms.”
After LifeWise sent a letter to the School Board in November urging them to address the unconstitutional policies, Director Charles Adkins publicly responded at the December 9, 2025 board meeting by saying, “First off, I would like to address the claim about whether my comments are motivated by animus toward LifeWise Academy. I want to make it very, extremely, abundantly clear, that yes, I do in fact hold animus toward LifeWise Academy. . . . It is an organization of homophobic bullies who are active and willing participants in the efforts to bring about an authoritarian theocracy. . . .”
LifeWise Academy is a nonprofit that provides Bible education to public school students during school hours under released time religious instruction laws—which the Supreme Court of the United States has upheld for nearly three-quarters of a century. LifeWise offers off-campus religious instruction to Emerson Elementary School students during lunch and recess—periods for which students are released from campus. When LifeWise began offering released-time religious instruction to students last year, it was immediately popular, and presently fifty-four families from Emerson Elementary send their children to LifeWise.
Despite strong parental support, however, the Everett school district singled-out LifeWise for onerous regulation and made hostile remarks about it. Board Member Adkins falsely and offensively alleged that the mission of LifeWise is “to bring white supremacy and Christian nationalism to our schools” and to “snuff out the cultures, religion, and language of native kids and other kids of color.” Mr. Adkins’s histrionics continued with the malicious accusation that LifeWise is engaged in an “effort to turn our nation into a fascist theocracy.” Saying the quiet part out loud, he made his intentions clear: On these bases, Mr. Adkins declared that LifeWise “cannot be allowed to have access to our kids.”
Consequently, the board adopted regulations prohibiting LifeWise from participating in community events and displaying its flyers, requiring LifeWise students to conceal any written materials they receive from LifeWise in a sealed envelope in their backpacks, and requiring LifeWise parents to follow a needlessly complicated and burdensome permission-slip policy, namely, weekly reauthorization for students to participate in LifeWise. No other school program requires similar burdensome regulations.
According to the lawsuit, “Those actions contravene our most precious liberties. “The right to free exercise, like other First Amendment rights, is not shed at the schoolhouse gate. Government schools, like all government institutions, may not place unconstitutional burdens on religious exercise.” Mahmoud v. Taylor, 606 U.S. 552, 545 (2025)
In 1952, the U.S. Supreme Court determined in Zorach v. Clauson that teaching the Bible during the public school day was constitutional and therefore legal in all 50 states, as long as such programs meet three conditions: The program must be held off campus, no government funds can be used for the program, and parental permission is required for child’s participation.
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About First Liberty Institute
First Liberty Institute is a non-profit public interest law firm and the largest legal organization in the nation dedicated exclusively to defending religious freedom for all Americans.
To arrange an interview, contact John Manning at media@firstliberty.org or by calling 972-941-4453.
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