Says parents who objected relied on personal opinions, some from Internet searches
By Elliot Spagat
Associated Press
SAN DIEGO (AP) — A California judge has ruled that it’s a real stretch to suggest yoga is always religious.
Superior Court Judge John S. Meyer rejected the pleas of parents from a San Diego County school district where yoga is taught on nine campuses who said the classes are inherently religious and violate the constitutional principle of separating church and state.
Meyer sided instead in the Monday ruling with administrators from the Encinitas Union School District who argued the practice while often religious is taught in a secular way to promote strength, flexibility and balance.
The judge said parents who objected relied on personal opinions, some culled from Internet searches.
“It’s almost like a trial by Wikipedia, which isn’t what this court does,” said Meyer, who took nearly two hours to explain a decision that explored yoga’s Indian roots and philosophy.
The judge emphasized that the school district stripped classes of all cultural references, including the Sanskrit language. The lotus position was renamed the “crisscross applesauce” pose.
Dean Broyles, an attorney for Encinitas parents Stephen and Jennifer Sedlock, said he would likely appeal.
“It was the judge’s job to call balls and strikes and determine the facts,” Broyles said. “I think he got some of the facts wrong.”
The district is believed to be the first in the country to have full-time yoga teachers at every one of its nine schools. The lessons are funded by a $533,720, three-year grant from the K.P. Jois Foundation.
The twice-weekly, 30-minute classes are offered along with more traditional physical education to the district’s 5,600 students.
Yoga is now taught at public schools from the rural mountains of West Virginia to the bustling streets of Brooklyn as a way to ease stress for tense students. But most classes are part of an after-school program, or are offered only at a few schools or by some teachers in a district.
