COLUMBUS, Ohio — It has been less than a week since the Hilliard City Schools Board of Education voted to approve a religious release time off policy, and parents are signing a petition to remove it.
The district, like many others in the Columbus area, has approved the Release Time Religious Instruction Policy, which would allow students to receive off-campus religious training during the school day. It has now become a heated debate among parents in Hilliard.
Omar Tarazi, a parent and the vice president of the Hilliard City Council, asked, "Why is it when this particular group who happens to be a Christian group said 'hey, can you do this same thing everyone else is doing,' we have this massive uprising in Hilliard?”
The policy, approved by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1952, ruled that three pieces of criteria must be met for a program to be accepted:
- The teaching must be off school property.
- It must be privately funded.
- The student must have parental permission.
"I think it's fantastic and it's absolutely necessary for kids' development to take a little bit of a break during the school day without compromising core classes and with parent permission to go and get that community-connection-ness, that faith-based connection-ness and values and character,” said Tarazi.
Participation is completely voluntary. One program available to students will be the Christian-based learning from LifeWise Academy.
“Release time is a wonderful constitutional way that parents can provide it. Churches can provide it without entangling public schools because students are literally taken from the school to our facility. In our case, they're taught the Bible, and then they're brought back,” said Founder and Executive Director of LifeWise Academy Joel Penton.
Penton explained that students typically take one class period per week to participate.
Other districts that have approved the policy include New Albany, Dublin and Upper Arlington.
While the program is getting some support from parents, there are others who are concerned the religious teachings will infiltrate to all students in the school and that it will take kids out of the classroom for extended periods of time.
“I was very against it and I really hate that it passed,” said Sarah Myers. “I absolutely think it will affect everybody. I mean, whether whether you want it, whether they mean it to or not.”
Myers said she’s concerned about how the program will affect students who don’t participate and how oversight will be monitored for programs and “religious groups” that are approved.
“The reason I love public school and chose a public school is because like, my child could have her faith and her friend can have her faith and it's fine. It's not part of the school day,” Myers said.
She prefers faith-based training to remain in after-school programs.
Another parent, Jon Parker-Jones, organized a petition against the policy. He said it has over 670 signatures.
“I don’t object to the reason for the absence. I object to the absence itself. If we can avoid absence from schools, students thrive,” said Parker-Jones.
He explained that younger students will still need school staff to assist them in and out of parking lots to meet with unknown new faculty for the program.
"That's going to have to involve school staff on some level and school staff are already charged with a lot of things, to add additional responsibilities will, at some point, take away from other responsibilities,” said Parker-Jones.
A spokesperson for Hilliard City Schools said it will take time for the district to work with legal counsel to get the program up and running. They stress they are not partnered with any particular organization or religion and participation is completely optional.