✳️This graphic is not a real photograph of LifeWise students being transported. The image is only illustrative.
🚨Public school teachers are telling us what this looks like on the ground.🚨
Not the polished marketing, not the pamphlets or the “documentary”.
Not the church recruitment pitch or what they say to your chamber of commerce.
Not the “character education” spin or their paid for trash science “study”.
The REALITY. On the ground. In the classrooms.
Teachers are reporting concerns about bribery to attend, kids being encouraged to recruit other kids, and children being transported in personal vehicles.
Those are serious claims; we know.
And yes, that is why documentation matters.
👉When private religious programs insert themselves into the public school day, teachers and school staff are often the ones left managing the fallout.
If you are a teacher, parent, staff member, or community member seeing this in your district: document it. Send what you can verify. Photos, policies, permission slips, schedules, emails, transportation details, and dates all matter.
Because every “isolated concern” becomes easier to dismiss when no one is tracking the pattern…. 👀
Teachers: we know many of you cannot speak publicly. SEA has an anonymous teacher/staff form for exactly that reason.
Anonymous reports help us identify leads. Documentation helps us prove what is happening.
Teacher/staff form:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfsMbiDjkKUJsJicQUbp7q7eIdJo7ZfEySaVhoexao3dPHDoQ/viewform?usp=header
What people are saying:
- Facebook User: Religious lessons should take place outside of school hours.
- Facebook User: The law prohibits transportation in personal vehicles, kids are prohibited from taking anything back to school, there is ZERO advertising(flyers, posters, etc) allowed on school grounds. Parents must initiate contact with LW and sign permission slips/waivers. The catholic churches have been doing this ON public school grounds for 40 years and no body complained….
- Facebook User: Facebook User ,really?! Where is your proof the Catholic Church has been doing this for years? Catholic schools are everywhere and for those who don’t attend Catholic school if their parents wish them to learn the teachings of the Church, they don’t do that during public school time. They go to Catechism on their time out of public school hours. The Catholic Church also doesn’t go to the State to force their religion into public schools.
- Facebook User: Facebook User there are catholic education busses in the parking lots of the local elementary schools in at least 3 schools within 10 minutes of my house. Has been there at least 30 years.
- Facebook User: Facebook User, why are they there? Are they pulling kids out of class from the public schools or are they part of the transportation to Catholic schools for children in that district? According to State law ,transportation to private or parochial schools has to be made available to those students because their parents still pay school taxes to support the public school system.
- Facebook User: Facebook User I didn’t initiate contact with LW and yet at my kids kindergarten screening it was talked about multiple times.
- Facebook User: Facebook User kids walk out of school, get on the bus, and get literature, books, etc….the bus doesn’t move
- Secular Education Association: Facebook User “The law prohibits” is a big claim. Which law? Which section?
Ohio’s released time statute says the program must be off school property and requires written parental consent. It does not contain the sweeping prohibitions you just listed. And on materials, it actually says district policy shall not prohibit students from bringing external educational/program materials into school.
So no, unless you can cite the actual code section, that sounds like LifeWise talking points…not Ohio law.
- Facebook User: Secular Education Association so what you’re saying is that LW standards are even more prohibitive than the state requires-sounds like they are going above and beyond to respect people’s wishes.
- Facebook User: The 75 year old mandate is wide open-catholic, christian, Muslim, atheist, humanist, tribal. All religions have the same rights if they choose to exercise them.
- Secular Education Association: Facebook User Cute spin, but no.
You said the law prohibits those things. It doesn’t.LifeWise internal rules are not Ohio law, and they are not a substitute for public oversight, district verification, or enforceable safeguards for kids being removed from school during the school day. Also. Let’s see these rules you speak of.
- Facebook User: Facebook User Inventing a fake 40 year history for the Catholic Church just to justify Lifewise’s current mess is hilarious. No the Catholic Church has not been teaching catechism on public school grounds during the school day. That was banned by the Supreme Court in 1948 McCollum vs. Board of Education
- Facebook User: In Van Wert, Ohio a house was purchased near the school so kids can walk next door….next step beyond bussing.
- Facebook User: All the kids who attend LifeWise in my hometown of Fremont, Ohio were treated to pizza and ice cream on the last day. No doubt the kids who don’t go are very much aware and feel left out. But this is so much the playbook of the bigger evangelical churches in the same area – coffee machines in the lobby, theater seating, rock bands, light shows. And they are pulling people in left and right with these enticements only to be fed a steady diet of homophobia and misogyny. Serving others, just so boring.
- Facebook User: Facebook User This is so true
- Facebook User: Facebook User misogyny…..my Bible seems to be missing that book. I think your Bible is broken. Hahaha.
Kids like snacks. If the drag queen story time had snacks, you would be perfectly fine. “Sure, put the Cheetos next to the ball gaps. It’s fine.”
- Facebook User: Facebook User The pizza ice cream I get. The coffee, lobby seating, rock bands… whatever – not my style of worship but I think you are stretching it. One is a valid point about omitting kids, the other is simply a chosen way to worship. Again- not my style. I am Catholic.
- Facebook User: Facebook User It’s fake Christianity
- Facebook User: There’s a documentary???
- Facebook User: Facebook User its more of a propaganda promo movie
- Facebook User: Facebook User
- Facebook User: Targeting young children is not wise life decision ! It’s a set up for grooming and indoctrination Into a cult. A cult masquerade as Christians.. They yell about the LGBTQ community and then go and do the same things themselves. Lifewise needs.
- Facebook User: “Private vehicles”. Sounds SCARY. I guess all the years I drove my kids to and from public schools makes me a bad parent.
- Facebook User: Facebook User Equating a parent driving their own children to a private organization packing other people’s kids into unvetted personal vehicles during school hours is an embarrassing stretch. It isn’t “scary” It is a massive liability, a HUGE safety hazard and a complete lack of accountability. Deflecting with fake outrage about your own parenting just proves you have zero logical defense for Lifewise’s sketchy logistics.
- Facebook User: Facebook User Lifewise was founded and organized by pedophiles. If you allow your kids to get into their car, you’re a bad parent.
- Facebook User: Facebook User you’re so smart and knowledgable I will start rethinking all of my life choices immediately.
- Facebook User: LifeWise should be a felony. Religion poisons everything.
- Facebook User: Facebook User No. You have two distinct statements there. I am not a Lifewise supporter but the two statements are separate.
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