Community Corner

School Yoga Classes Aren't Religious, Judge Rules (Video Added)

Encinitas Union wins court battle over a yoga program funded by a private foundation.

The Encinitas Union School District will continue to teach yoga to students after a judge ruled Monday that the instruction method was not religious.   

Judge John S. Meyer said testimony led him to agree with school district assertions the yoga classes were strictly for health and wellness purposes, and had been stripped of "cultural components" that some claim were religious in context.

About 30 people were in attendance to hear Meyer's decision. He began the proceedings with a lengthy recap of evidence, witness testimony, and a rundown on the history of yoga and Ashtanga yoga as it relates to what is being taught in the school. 

Testimony from school officials and yoga class teachers led Meyer to say "there is direct and uncontroverted evidence as to what goes on in the classes."

The lawsuit was filed by the National Center for Law and Policy (NCLP) on behalf of Stephen and Jennifer Sedlock, whose children attend one of the district's nine schools. On its website, the nonprofit Christian-based center said it focuses on the protection and promotion of religious freedom, the sanctity of life, traditional marriage, parental rights and other civil liberties.

"The schools are supposed to be not places of religious division, but rather places of religious neutrality," said Dean Broyles of the NCLP. "Here, we have schools partnering with the Jois Foundation, a foundation that has religious goals, to promote a religious program, based on Ashtanga yoga. And that is constitutionally problematic, for sure."

The Encinitas Union School District did accept a grant for $533,000 from the K.P. Jois Foundation in 2011, with the goal of instituting yoga as part of the core physical education curriculum for the district. However, as part of the grant, the district had full control over the formulation of the program, and the Jois Foundation had no authority to certify or hire teachers for it. 

Although yoga is rooted in Hinduism, Meyer said the district took significant steps to secularize the program. That included changing the names of some poses (Lotus became "Criss-cross Applesauce," for example), and removing the use of Sanskrit language, such as the word namaste.

Meyer discounted the testimony of Candy Gunther Brown, a religious studies professor at Indiana University, who backed the parents who sued, saying Brown "is on a mission against Ashtanga yoga."

(Editor's Note: Gunther Brown is not a religious studies professor at Harvard as was previously reported. She received her BA, MA and PhD from Harvard University.)

"A lot of her testimony is based on opinions and some research done to fulfill her goal of eliminating yoga from any school, period," he said. 

Meyer said the 30-minute courses being taught in Encinitas schools focus on proper breathing, stretching and posture, along with respect for self and others, not spirituality. 

Meyer called the influence of the Jois Foundation on EUSD "troublesome," but said, in the end, he didn't feel the Foundation had an ulterior motive other than helping to promote the health and wellness of children through yoga. 

The plaintiffs said an appeal is likely.    

–City News Service contributed to this story. 

Editor's note: This story has been updated to include a video. 


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here