WESTERVILLE, Ohio — The Westerville City Schools Board of Education held a special meeting Tuesday night to make a final decision on whether to rescind its policy on absences for religious instruction.
Hundreds of people on both sides of the issue showed up to the meeting. Many of them also signed up for public comment, which lasted nearly two and a half hours.
All but one board member ultimately voted in favor of rescinding the policy, therefore banning the continuance of its optional bible program for students, known as LifeWise Academy.
Before making the vote, Kristy Meyer, president of the board, shared a little background as to why the decision was being made.
"I want to make one thing very clear, the concern around this policy has nothing to do with any specific religion or religious programs in general,” Meyer said.
The district has had the religious absence policy in place since 2009, which allowed students to miss school in favor of religious instruction during the school day.
LifeWise Academy has been teaching students, with parental permission, in the Westerville City Schools District for the last couple of years. The program would take students during their lunch and recess to an offsite location to teach them about the Bible.
Parents who showed up in red shirts went in support of LifeWise. They claimed it provided valuable education to the students who wanted it. They also stated the program complied with the Supreme Court and state rulings on religious instruction.
"We've worked so well with the school district for the last two years, had 300 students last year that attended LifeWise, so we were a little surprised that they felt they needed to take such an extreme action to rescind the policy rather than us being able to come to the table and figure out how we could continue to work together,” Jennifer Jury, program director for LifeWise Westerville, said.
The district members who showed up wearing black spoke against LifeWise and the religious instruction policy. Many of them claimed it caused a disruption during the school day and created a divide between the students who attended the program and those who didn’t. Some said in certain ways, it also fostered a culture of bullying.
"We're ecstatic, we're elated, we worked very hard and you know, at the core of this, this isn't about religion against religion, this isn't against Christianity, it's just removing a policy that sows division and lack of inclusion amongst our children,” Jaclyn Fraley, one of the leaders of Westerville Parents United, said.
Now that the board voted to rescind the religious instruction policy, it takes effect immediately.