LifeWise sues Everett district, alleging First Amendment violations

Published 3:53 pm Thursday, December 18, 2025

EVERETT — An off-campus Bible education program sued Everett Public Schools in federal court on Thursday, accusing the school district of violating First Amendment law by implementing a number of policies the program said hinder its constitutional rights.

The program, LifeWise Academy, is an off-campus Bible education nonprofit that operates near Emerson Elementary in Everett. Once a week, volunteers take children out of public school during the school day — at lunch and recess periods — for optional Bible classes. The Supreme Court determined that midday off-campus religious programs like it were legal in a 1952 ruling.

The legal firms representing Ohio-based LifeWise — Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner and the conservative nonprofit First Liberty Institute — argued that a number of district actions and policies violated the organization’s rights to free speech and free expression of religion. The actions included:

• Denying a LifeWise request to take part in a community fair and to display flyers on school property

• A permission slip policy that requires parents to submit advance written consent to allow other individuals, like LifeWise volunteers, to take children out of school

• A policy requiring students to keep LifeWise instructional materials sealed in backpacks and not take them out during the school day

“While students are free to read Spider Man comics about Peter Parker, the District prohibits them from reading about Peter the Apostle,” the complaint read.

Jeremy Dys, senior counsel at the First Liberty Institute, wrote in a press release that those actions and policies “purposefully” hindered the operation of the program “just because it’s religious,” and were a violation of the First Amendment.

“Now a member of the school board has admitted publicly that the board’s actions against LifeWise are out of intentional, hostility toward religion,” Dys wrote. “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.”

In a statement Friday, Everett Public Schools confirmed that it was served with the lawsuit. Citing the active litigation, spokesperson Harmony Weinberg wrote that the district was not able to provide additional comment.

In a Dec. 12 letter sent by the district’s legal counsel to LifeWise’s attorneys — obtained by The Daily Herald through a public records request — the district denied all the alleged violations, stating that LifeWise’s allegations were “factually inaccurate” and that the district is “acting in compliance with First Amendment legal standards.”

“With respect to LifeWise Academy itself, the District will continue to evaluate any requests to participate in District-sponsored events or to distribute its materials in compliance with its policies and procedures which comport with state and federal laws,” wrote the attorney representing the district, Sarah Mack. “Simply because your client disagrees that those policies and procedures should apply to it or to the families and students served by LifeWise Academy does not make them unconstitutional.”

In the complaint, LifeWise pointed out that the district denied a request from the nonprofit to participate in a community resource fair. The district told a LifeWise representative that it does not allow religious-based organizations to participate in school-sponsored events, and cited a policy that allow religious groups to use school resources only in accordance with procedures developed by the Superintendent. The policy also states that materials promoting religion cannot be distributed by non-students or on behalf of groups or individuals who are not students.

LifeWise, in the complaint, argued that the organization provides philanthropic services that would qualify it to participate in the fair. It alleged that the district excluded it because of its religious viewpoint, and that the exclusion of religious organizations from the community fair is not necessary for the district.

“Because the District does not promote or endorse an organization, its message, or its services by allowing it to participate in the community resource fair, excluding LifeWise from the community resource fair on the basis of its status as a religious organization serves no purpose reasonably related to the limitation on the community resource fair as a public forum,” the complaint read.

The district argued in its letter that it is permitted to make reasonable content-based restrictions on speech at certain nonpublic events with a limited purpose, like the community forum. The district stated that not every organization is permitted to participate in that event, rather, it invites specific organizations providing services to share that information with families and students. It also stated that it has the authority to not sponsor or promote speech that might place it on one side of a controversial issue.

“It is not at all unlikely that allowing LifeWise Academy to advertise its program at a District- sponsored event may be viewed as District endorsement of its religious program,” Mack wrote.

Another point of contention in the complaint is a policy the district has in place regarding permission slips excusing students to the LifeWise classes. In spring 2025, LifeWise alleged, the organization was able to collect permission slips en masse, in advance, and simply turn them in on the appropriate day when a child was being taken out of school for LifeWise.

According to LifeWise, however, that changed at a Sept. 9 board meeting, when board president Traci Mitchell mentioned the permission slip policy — one that LifeWise called a “different, and more onerous” policy — during her comments at the meeting.

The board took no action to change any district policies related to student absence or released-time religious instruction at that meeting, meeting minutes show.

Emails previously obtained by The Daily Herald through a public records request also show the district told LifeWise representatives in October 2024, months before the nonprofit began operating in Everett, that parents would need to submit permission slips for each absence. The slips must state the date, time to be released, and the person whom the parent or guardian is asking the school to release the student to, the email stated.

In the complaint, LifeWise argued that the permission slip policy differed from other release requests for non-religious reasons. It also stated that it has led to administrative burdens, hurting LifeWise’s ability to operate efficiently.

“This means that LifeWise’s staff and volunteers must spend less time preparing for a weekly lesson and instead spend time contacting parents about permission slips,” the complaint read.

In the district’s letter, Mack wrote that the allegation is “factually inaccurate.” All parents or guardians of students being released to other individuals during the day, for any reason, must provide permission slips with the name of an adult they will be released to for safety reasons, she wrote.

Mack also stated that it was unclear how LifeWise Academy had the standing to raise a constitutional claim in respect to the permission slip process, as it “is a requirement imposed on parents and guardians of their students, not on LifeWise Academy,” Mack wrote.

“You also appear to have a misunderstanding of Board Policy versus school procedures and practices,” Mack wrote to the legal teams representing LifeWise. “In Washington, school boards are policy-making bodies. District Policies are required to be written and adopted by the Board, with two public readings prior to voting on any such adoption … Merely because Board members discuss school practices or procedures during a Board meeting does not make such practice an official Board policy.”

The third policy LifeWise names in the complaint is a requirement for students to keep LifeWise materials sealed in an envelope and placed in their backpacks when returning to school. In the lawsuit, LifeWise states that parents who send their children to the off-campus program want their children to use their free time reading LifeWise materials. The organization also states that it “reinforces a message that religion is shameful and that faith should be hidden.”

“Requiring students to keep LifeWise materials in a sealed envelope in their backpacks is unnecessary to further any interest the District has against disruption or other student misconduct, which can be dealt with on a case-by-case basis that does not discriminate on the basis of religion,” the complaint read.

In the district’s letter, Mack wrote that children returning to school from LifeWise would attempt to provide LifeWise-branded items to other students, “causing substantial disruption in the classroom.”

“As a result, the school asked students who were returning from LifeWise Academy to keep those items in a sealed envelope in their backpacks,” Mack wrote. “The same would be required of students distributing the same types of materials in the classroom from any secular organization, and you have provided no evidence to the contrary.”

Students are able to distribute religious material at school before or after the school day at points of entry or exit with the permission of the principal, district policy reads, but religious material cannot be distributed on behalf of groups or individuals who are not students.

Later on Thursday, LifeWise also filed a motion seeking a preliminary injunction, a court order that is granted before a final judgement to prevent irreparable harm. The organization sought a court ruling to prohibit policies that “bar LifeWise from from engaging (as other community groups do) in protected First Amendment activity … burden Plaintiff’s free exercise rights through a draconian permission slip policy unique to LifeWise,” and “banish the public possession of LifeWise material.”

The motion argues that LifeWise is likely to succeed on their claims and that the district’s actions are causing “irreparable harm,” as district policies have “uniquely burdened religious speech” and made it so LifeWise “cannot promote its program on equal footing with secular programs.” It also states that there is a public interest in favor of issuing the injunction.

LifeWise has been a controversial program since it began operating in Everett in January. At school board meetings, particularly at a meeting following the nonprofit’s threat to sue the district in November, a number of parents made public comments expressing concerns over the program, largely due its ties to right-wing organizations and concerns over its views on LGBTQ+ issues.

In the complaint, LifeWise stated that it is not affiliated with a specific denomination of Christianity and does not teach students about political issues.

The organization’s curriculum is used as part of a licensing agreement with LifeWay Christian Resources, a publishing entity of the Southern Baptist Convention, the nation’s largest Protestant organization. A conservative think tank, The Heritage Foundation, provided financial support to LifeWise in June and referred to it as a “conservative organization” that is “the tip of the spear in the fight to save the country.”

The lawsuit was filed in United States District Court in Seattle.

Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that parents or guardians are required to submit permission slips to take their own children out of school. Parents are required to submit premission slips to allow other individuals, like LifeWise volunteers, to take children out of school.

Will Geschke: 425-339-3443; william.geschke@heraldnet.com; X: @willgeschke.