Everett schools protecting freedoms in defending LifeWise lawsuit
Published 1:30 am Wednesday, January 7, 2026
The lawsuit filed by LifeWise Academy against Everett Public Schools claims “religious hostility,” but the district’s policies are actually common-sense safeguards for neutrality (“LifeWise sues Everett district, alleging First Amendment violations,” The Herald, Dec. 19). In many ways, LifeWise operates like the “MLM” of Christianity, where the primary goal appears to be aggressive recruitment and expansion within the public school day.
LifeWise argues that being barred from school resource fairs is discriminatory. However, we must ask: Would the community be as supportive if the Church of Satan or a local mosque’s “Quran Academy” demanded the right to set up recruitment tables next to LifeWise tables at elementary school fairs? Without question, LifeWise would be the first to demand that those programs not be allowed to do so, because they don’t align with their rhetoric.
If their intentions were sincere, they would be fine being sandwiched between those two groups.
My siblings and I attended Everett schools growing up, and some of our classmates were part of AWANA, Young Life and BBYO, but none of those programs demanded access to children during the school day for recruitment. The separation of church and state is ingrained in our Constitution for a reason, yet LifeWise is fighting hard to cross that line to recruit and indoctrinate children during school hours.
The district’s policy requiring religious materials to stay in backpacks isn’t “shameful”; it’s a necessary boundary to ensure the school day remains focused on education rather than peer-to-peer religious lobbying.
LifeWise’s complaints about “onerous” permission slips are another huge red flag. When any outside group takes children off-campus during school hours, the highest level of scrutiny is a safety requirement, not a “burden.”
By maintaining these boundaries, Everett Public Schools is protecting the rights of all parents to direct their children’s upbringing at home, rather than allowing the classroom to become a recruitment hub.
Carla Sanderson
Snohomish County
