The latest dispatch from Encinitas: While most of the yoga-in-school drama has died down after a judge ruled that yoga’s not religious and therefore okay for students to practice it as part of the school district’s curriculum, we’ve been biding our time waiting for the promised appeal from the opposing parents. Well, the wait is over. The official appeal was filed by Dean Broyles Wednesday, Oct. 30 in San Diego Superior Court on behalf of the handful of parents who oppose the yoga curriculum in the Encinitas Union School District.
We’re not entirely sure if that includes the Sedlocks, the parents Broyles represented in the original case filed in February earlier this year that claimed yoga was inherently religious and brainwashing their kids. To each their own, though it’s a shame. The Sedlocks have since pulled their daughter out of the EUSD and transplanted her in another school district.
Broyles, who is president of the National Center for Law and Policy, a nonprofit dedicated to defending religious freedom and traditional marriage, represented the concerned parents in the original lawsuit and is continuing on his mission to keep the separation between church and state and kids from breathing and feeling good about themselves through yoga. Even after the ruling, it’s still a murky subject.
The kids in the Encinitas Union School District have been participating in twice a week 30-minute yoga sessions for almost a year now as part of a study conducted and paid for by the Sonima foundation (formerly Jois Foundation) who provided an initial $533,720 grant followed by an additional $1.4 million. The added money enabled them to hire nine additional teachers, according to Elizabeth Wallace, executive assistant to the district’s superintendent. Meanwhile Sonima has been making some other big moves in schools across the country.
The overall results have proved positive. (Students can still opt out of the program, by the way.)
Says Carrie Brown, principal at El Camino Creek:
“Having seen this program in action for a year, I feel that it is definitely beneficial for the kids,” Brown said. “The proof is in the pudding, and the kids are doing well. That’s kinda how I feel.”
That’s kinda how we feel, too.
[Via Washington Post]
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Earlier…
You might consider amending the above piece to more appropriately describe the National Center for Law and Policy as a Christian organization that advocates for the rights of Christians and against same-sex marriage.
I think you are being too generous. At best I would say its a Christian organization that advocates for Christians. I don’t see them doing anything about anyone’s “rights.” Perhaps Christian interests, or even entitlements and privileges.
Interestingly, the phony yoga movement displays the same fundamentalist mindset. “Yoga is universal.” “Yoga is for everybody.” Just replace the word “yoga” with “Jesus” or “Christianity,” for example, to see the “obvious.” Real Yoga is Hinduism and is obviously not for everybody.