A group representing parents of Encinitas students have filed a lawsuit against the Encinitas Union School District.
Attorneys for the National Center For Law & Policy filed the suit Wednesday to have the schools halt a controversial yoga program. The center claims in a news release that the practice violates students’ religious freedoms.
“This is frankly the clearest case of the state trampling on the religious freedom rights of citizens that I have personally witnessed in my 18 years of practice as a constitutional attorney,” attorney Dean Broyles stated. “The program is extremely divisive and has unfortunately led to the harassment, discrimination, bullying, and segregation of children who, for good reasons, opt out of the program.”
Last year, the district accepted a $533,000 grant from the Jois Foundation to incorporate Ashtanga yoga into the curriculum. At least three schools already had some form of yoga instruction prior to the grant.
In December, Superintendent Dr. Timothy Baird clarified several questions he’d received for the board. “There is no religious instruction,” he said, “only the physical component of yoga is taught.” Baird said the “cultural elements” had been taken out of the yoga program, referring to Sanskrit and any references to the Hindu roots of Ashtanga yoga.
Calls to the district were not immediately returned Wednesday.
—Patch reporter Wehtahnah Tucker contributed to this report.
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Please read and understand the comment before you reply. You will not look uneducated if you do this.
Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) Classification Christian Geographical areas Worldwide Headquarters Geneva, Switzerland Founder George Williams Origin 1844 London, Great Britain Official website Ymca.int The Young Men's Christian Association (commonly known as YMCA or simply the Y) is a worldwide organization with more than 58 million beneficiaries from 125 national associations.[1] It was founded on 6 June 1844 in London and it aims to put Christian principles into practice by developing a healthy "body, mind and spirit". These three angles are reflected by the different sides of the (red) triangle – part of all YMCA logos. The different local YMCAs are voluntarily affiliated through their national organizations. The national organizations in turn are part of both an Area Alliance and the World Alliance of YMCAs. The World Alliance's main motto is: "Empowering young people" and it is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. The World Alliance has a charter from the United States Congress."
The mother's FB page is littered with Biblical "likes" and states she is from Oklahoma. I think she is confused about where she lives.
Since you don't know the Sedlock's you should keep your opinion to yourself. They are two of the nicest most generous people that I know. They are not one of the selfish people that want yoga in the schools despite the constitutional violations are trying to BULLY their opinion onto the communities of Encinitas and South Carlsbad. The simple cure to this is to make it an after school program like football, baseball or basketball and those who Choose to participate can at no cost. Unfortunately, you supporters do not want to be inconvenienced to have to do this outside of the normal school day. You are worried about the Districts money being wasted to defend this lawsuit, which will be less than $1Million, but you don't have an issue with Tim Baird and the Board of Trustees wasting almost $11 Million. You are probably also an Obama supporter who I would like to thank for putting our community in the financial Black Hole we are in!